The National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams has defended a decision by the Police and the Electoral Commission to add names of new recruits to the list of persons expected to take part in this year’s special voting exercise.
According to him persons who feel aggrieved over the issue could sue the EC.
“If anybody feels that somebody has done something that may not be right the right place to go is the court,” he said.
Though the law governing the conduct of the 2016 election, C. I 94 orders the EC not to accept applications for the special voters not later than 42 days before the elections, a leaked memo from the Police and sighted by Citi News suggest the contrary.
The memo, which was written by the Director General of Police Service, COP Chistian Tetteh Yohunu on behalf of the IGP instructed all Divisional Commanders, all Regional Commanders, and all Commanders in charge of Police training schools to key in the names of Police officers whose names are not on the special voters’ register.
It also directed the aforementioned commanders, especially the commanders of the Police Training Schools, to make sure that all recruits have their names on the special voters’ list.
Meanwhile, some parties including the New Patriotic Party, People’s National Congress and the Progressive People’s Party have kicked against the move.
Policy Advisor of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Kofi Asamoah Siaw in a Citi News interview accused the EC of conniving with the Police service to rig the December 7 polls and further described the move as illegal.
“What the EC is doing is illegal and it is an ambush and that is the argument I’ve always been making that at the end of the day we’ll need to comply with the regulations of C. I.94. Because if things that are unknown are introduced during the process of voting you are only providing opportunities for people to rig the elections. It is unfortunate that the referee is not complying with its own rules and regulations and it’s surprising everybody.
But speaking to Citi News, Kofi Adams said the EC and the Police have done no wrong.
“I have heard that some persons who at the time of compilation of the names were not considered to have been part of the security system but have since then been recruited, they are now part of the system and they are away not on their own volition but because of work. And because of that they will be away from where they are supposed to be and possibly even be performing other duties so therefore they qualify to be on the list. So I don’t think we should crack heads over this, this is a list that is easy to identity, it’s known, can easily be done and worked with and so submitted to political parties,” Kofi Adams added.
A total of 114,813 voters are expected to cast their ballot during the special voting on December 1.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
