Nana Obiri Boahen, a Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has stated that anyone who attempts to disrupt the compilation of the new voters’ register would be beaten mercilessly.
He said the violence that happened during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election was just a tip of the iceberg adding that Ghanaians can stay home if he or she doesn’t agree to the compilation of the new register.Jean Adukwei Mensa, EC boss
In an interview on Dadi FM, he said “Stay home if you don’t agree to the compilation of the new register because anyone who tries to disrupt the exercise will be beaten. We will beat you mercilessly. What happened in Ayawaso is just the tip of the iceberg.”
He said the compilation of a new voters’ register for the 2020 elections is non-negotiable.
According to him, “…limited registration isn’t it a registration. If we say we are doing general registration and that only 25 people should be in a queue at a time won’t the same be done for limited registration? Every registration is registration. COVID-19 is not part of an emergency under the constitution of Ghana so whether it is COVID-19 or not elections would be held. At all costs, the new register would be compiled and if you don’t understand, you can get petrol to set fire into yourself.”
With about 6 months to the December 7, the Electoral Commission (EC) has served notice it will still go ahead with the compilation of the new voters’ register despite protests from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and some political parties.
Nana Obiri Boahen explained that as soon as the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) by the Electoral Commission comes into force, the current voters’ register becomes invalid hence new register must be compiled to conduct the December 7, 2020, general election.
“Regulation 32 of the CI 91 saved the life of voters register because when CI,72 was repealed by CI91 regulation 33(D) succinctly explained that if there is no new register the old register is used. But The CI that is about to come into existence will not save the life of the current registry. As soon as the new CI matures the current register becomes dead.so if you don’t compile a new register you can’t use the old one,” he stated.
source: pulse ghana
