Claims of aliens on voters' register are baseless - NDC
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described the claims by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that “aliens” from neighbouring countries have been registered in Ghana’s voters’ register had the potential to undermine Ghana’s relationship with its neighbours.
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According to the NDC, the NPP was only seeking to exploit the historical and familial ties that exist between persons living on either side of Ghana’s borders for partisan and factional gains.
Addressing a press conference a day after the NPP’s claims that over 76,000 Togolese had been found on Ghana’s voter’s register, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia described the NPP’s claims as “baseless” and “reckless”.
He noted that the NPP’s claims were not only fraudulent but also constituted a gratuitous attack on the people of the Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions.
“As far as we are concerned, this claim is a continuation of the NPP’s long-standing affinity for tribal politics through which they associate people from certain ethnic and tribal extraction with wrong doing and heap unsavoury commentary on them”, he said.
Disputing the authenticity of the NPP’s claims, Mr Asiedu Nketia accused the NPP of having a “track-record of concocting lies and fabricating evidence like they did at the Supreme Court in a bid to discredit their political opponents.”
Click here to read the full statement by Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia
Facial recognition technology
At their press conference Tuesday, the NPP’s Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said the party’s team of investigators used a facial recognition technology to come to the conclusion that some 76, 286 persons had been found on both Ghana and Togo’s voters’ register.
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Disputing the claim, Mr Asiedu Nketia accused the NPP of deliberately manufacturing “lies” to justify their calls for a new voters’ register as the two pictures presented side by side bore no resemblance to each other.
According to him, a close examination of the pictures presented as evidence of registration by Togolese and Ivorians showed a clear case of deceptive manipulation of photographs taken at different times.
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CI 72
Nonetheless, Mr Asiedu Nketia noted that even if there was merit to the claims being made by the NPP, they should resort to the provisions that existed in the electoral laws to address the issues.
“Regulations 16 to 25 of CI72 make provision for challenging the qualification of applicants during the registration and objection after the registration of voters. If the NPP was sincere about ensuring a credible register and not motivated by malice they would have availed themselves of these provisions in the law to effect the necessary corrections”, he said.
Mr Asiedu Nketia noted however that their failure to do so was a clear indication that “this is only an elaborate ruse devised to raise political tensions to mask the intractable disunity that has afflicted them for months.”