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The National Identification Authority (NIA) has said there is “no truth” in the National Democratic Congress‘ claims that it is conniving with government and the Electoral Commission to rig the upcoming general elections for President Akufo-Addo.
According to the chairman of the main opposition NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, the NIA and the EC are involved in voter suppression, especially in NDC strongholds.
“The President seeing defeat staring glaringly at him, he is in conjunction with the Jean Mensa led EC and the Ken Attafuah led NIA desperately scheming to rig the 2020 elections and hold on to power at all cost.
“Not even the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in which requires that we pull together for our collective survival as a nation are enough to deter the actors of this plot from their ungodly act,” Mr. Ofosu Ampofo said.
However, the Authority led by Prof. Ken Attafuah, has refuted the claims, saying: “There is no truth to this allegation. NIA does not operate on the basis of political strongholds. Our operations planning is based on population statistics obtained from Ghana Statistical Service. There has been no deliberate effort to prevent applicants in any region to register”.
“While it is true the exclusion of the voter ID card as a primary registration requirement has increased the number of applicants needing to be vouched for, this process has been a part of our electoral practice under the Fourth Republic. The only difference now is that requirement that the oath be sworn before a Commissioner for Oaths or Magistrate. This ensures greater document integrity as guarantors appreciate the consequences of perjury in swearing the oath of identity. NIA ensures that a Commissioner for Oaths is available at every registration centre, at no cost to the applicants. Indeed, over 70% of applicants for the Ghana Card used this method to validate their citizenship nationwide.
“It is not true that NIA deployed over 5000 MRWs into the Ashanti Region. The maximum number ever deployed was 3,600, as some of the old equipment had become faulty and some of the new ones were kept at the Head Office and used for hot-swapping when some of the equipment fails”.
Meanwhile, the 2020 Campaign Manager for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Peter Mac Manu, has stated emphatically that the NPP is not and cannot be part of any conspiracy whatsoever to rig the 2020 elections, as alleged by the NDC.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Mr. Mac Manu said, “a fake conspiracy does not become a credible conspiracy just because an opposition that is afraid of losing a free and fair contest says so.”
According to him, it is that record of a rigged leadership under John Dramani Mahama that the NDC must be afraid of bringing back to face the Ghanaian people for their votes and not any fake conspiracy to rig the elections against them.
Mr. Mac Manu reminded the NDC of how the NPP, as an opposition party, beat the NDC in 2016 ––and by the largest margin ever in Ghana’s history against an incumbent president in Ghana’s history.
“It is not the fault of any Ghanaian that the NDC chose to bring back as their presidential candidate for 2020 the very man on whose hands the NDC suffered their biggest defeat in their history. It is not the fault of NPP that the NDC chose to bring back as their 2020 presidential candidate the very same man who gave Ghana the worst economic growth performance since 1994. It is not the fault of President Akufo-Addo that the NDC has very little confidence in their own chosen Candidate for 2020, John Mahama.”
Mr. Mac Manu said, the party intend to fight and win in December based on our performance.
“We do not need the EC to rig an election in our favour. A government that has put some 1.3 million children to school, (who if NDC was in power would be on the streets) does not need an election to be rigged in its favour. A government that has restored industry and is creating jobs for the people does not need an election to be rigged in its favour. A government that has put 100,000 unemployed graduates to work does not need an election to be rigged in its favour. A government that puts the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian first, whether it is in protecting the money of millions of depositors, or absolving the cost of electricity and water of 30 million Ghanaians, to ease the sufferings of the people when there is a crisis, such a government does not need an election to be rigged in its favour,” he stated.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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