Jean Menssa, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), from its flagbearer, former President John Dramani Mahama, to senior and junior officers of the party, has been on a lying spree for some time now, making it obvious that the party intends to prosecute the 2020 campaign on lies and propaganda.
In most instances, the lies have been exposed by available facts and the institutions they have targeted to denigrate with their smear campaign strategy. Yet, the party, believing in the mantra of “lies, if constantly repeated, sound like truth”, appears not ready to change its style, with the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the Electoral Commission (EC) being the recent institutions to suffer from this calculated attempt to denigrate state institutions with falsehoods.
The party, last Thursday, accused the two institutions of conniving with the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to rig the 2020 general election for President Akufo-Addo and the governing party.
EC exposes lies
The National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, addressing a press conference, claimed that majority of Ghanaians will have to swear an oath before they can take part in the EC’s upcoming voters’ registration exercise.
“Almost 11 million (constituting 62%) of eligible voters will have to go through the sworn oath option to be able to register for a Voters’ ID, if the EC’s illogical and wasteful decision to compile a needless new Voter’s Register for the 2020 general elections materializes,” the NDC Chairman claimed.
But this, according to a statement signed by Mrs Sylvia Annoh (Mrs), Acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC, is a palpable falsehood.
“It is worthy to note that the Commission does not require the services of Commissioners of Oath during registration of voters as alluded to by Mr Ofosu-Ampofo,” the EC said in a response to the NDC’s press conference.
The EC, after disproving all the allegations peddled against them by the NDC, asked the public to reject the claims of the opposition party since it has been on a course of using lies to cause disaffection for the commission.
“The Electoral Commission is not oblivious of the calculated attempts by the NDC to repeatedly peddle untruths and falsehoods aimed at tarnishing its image and causing disaffection for it,” the EC said.
NIA
Also the NIA, in a seven-page document, responded to all the “lies” levelled against them by the NDC.
The Authority first denied any involvement in a plan to rig the 2020 general election, directing the NDC to take the appropriate step to stop any such move if it has any proof.
“Election rigging is a serious criminal matter with dire political, economic and social consequences for any nation. Any person, party or institution alleging such a criminal conspiracy has a duty to report same to the police and provide the requisite evidence to support investigations and/or prosecution,” the NIA said.
The NIA also wondered why the NDC Minority in Parliament supported the amendment of Section 8 of Act 750 to exclude voter ID cards, drivers’ licences and baptismal certificates as valid registration requirements for securing the Ghana Card only for the party to make a U-turn to accuse the NIA of perpetrating illegality.
“Indeed, as Hon. Inusah Fuseini put it, the MPs were satisfied that ample provision had been made in the Bill to cater for those Ghanaians who had neither a Birth Certificate nor a Passport, namely the ‘vouching for’ process, which allows for every undocumented Ghanaian to apply for and be issued a Ghana Card without producing a Birth Certificate or valid Passport. In these circumstances, the exclusion was both legal and legitimate, having been passed by the Ghanaian Parliament and on sound legal and social grounds,” the NIA said.
The NIA further disproved allegations by the NDC that the Authority mobilised unprecedented numbers of equipment and personnel in NPP’s strongholds as against the NDC’s.
The NIA stated that the concept of “strongholds” has never been in its contemplation or operational planning, adding the “figures used by NIA for setting its registration targets figures were obtained from the Statistical Service and not from the EC.”
On the claim by the NDC that the NIA had sought to disenfranchise potential voters in its strongholds, the Authority replied: “It must be emphasized that 50% of registration officials engaged by NIA were recruited from the regions where the registration exercise was being undertaken. It is hard to contemplate that such officials will condone an agenda to disenfranchise their compatriots as the NDC seeks to suggest.”
