Leadership of the pressure group, Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) and its affiliates, pushing for an entirely new voter register for the 2016 general elections, have served notice that they would not bow to any attempt by government and its agencies, including the Ghana Police Service, to cow them.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, convener of the LMVCA, David Asante said, “We wish to use this platform to send a clear message to the State that no amount of intimidation, harassment, violence, lies, obstacles and abuse of the legal process can protect this bloated register.”
This was a day after a circuit court had granted an ex-parte injunction to the police against the groups’ decision to picket at the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC) on grounds that they (police) suspected some criminals were planning to attack Accra and other regions.
That was hours after another circuit court had given the group the green light to embark on the demonstration, contrary to the initial excuse given by the police that the EC is a security zone for which reason they would not allow leadership of LMVCA to picket there, let alone present their petition.
Leadership of LMVCA and other groups, including the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) and Movement for Change (MFC) insist the current and existing voter register is not only bloated, but “bogus and will not survive” hence, the need to compile a new one.
“We are absolutely certain about that. The more the State, using its instruments of propaganda and violence, to protect an electoral roll built for the purpose of rigging, the more they expose that fraudulent intention and the more they worsen their case to protect that gargantuan instrument of fraud,” Mr Dvid Asante articulated.
Whatever they (referring to functionaries of the National Democratic Congress) were able to do in 2012 with what he described as ‘that bogus register,’ he said, would not happen again.
Instead, he indicated that “The good people of Ghana are prepared to fight with all the legitimate weapons available to give the country the unalloyed opportunity to decide next year whether to vote for change or vote for continuity.”
The convener continued, “No longer should the legal votes of those entitled to vote not count. No longer should ghosts and non-nationals, corrupt EC officers and all, be allowed to overturn the mandate of Ghanaians,” he emphasized, insisting that “This is a battle worth fighting for and we have no desire to quit today or tomorrow.
“We want to tell His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama and his NDC that they have lost the plot to rig the 2016 elections. There is nothing that they can do to stop the current register from being changed for a new one.
“If President John Mahama and his party do not want a new, credible register, it does not lie in their discretion to use the police to frustrate those who do not share their view,” David Asante said.
That, according to him, was a danger to the country’s democracy since “Ghana risks becoming an elective dictatorship.” He has therefore cautioned the Chief Justice that “The Judiciary is gradually assisting the police to drag Ghana back into a police state and that she must do all that her powers permit to ensure full compliance by the Bench to the letter and spirit of the basic law of this country – the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu