GHANA- Friday, August 7, 2020/– Deputy Campaign Manager of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alex Segbefia says the ongoing voter’s registration exercise has raised ethnic tensions in the country.
According to him, Electoral Commission’s (EC) “has gone through an exercise that has raised ethnic tension” in the country as it gets people on the electoral roll.
When the host of the Super Morning Show, Kojo Yankson, asked whether he believed the newly compiled register gave an advantage over the other to one political group, the Former Health Minister acknowledged that “no properly compiled register gives an advantage to anyone.”
He further argued that the NDC was “still unhappy with the attempts made to stop legitimate Ghanaians from voting”.
Speaking against the involvement of the military in the process Mr Segbefia said, “There’s a clear system of how you should challenge, and a clear system of what you should do. Having military up and down the country is not the way forward.”
He also noted that he was not aware of any eligible voter who had been disenfranchised in the exercise this far. However, he commented on cases where some people believed to be Togolese nationals were challenged.
The Deputy Campaign Manager said individuals with dual citizenship should be allowed to exercise their voting rights in each of the countries to which they belonged.
The Deputy Campaign Manager said people who held dual citizenships should be allowed to exercise their franchise in any of the countries they belonged to.
“You do not say that because someone can answer to ‘bonjour’ they are not Ghanaian. You don’t say that … As far as I am aware people have been questioned about the lingo-Franco. They were spoken to in French and if they responded [in French] it means you had ties”, he added.
He added that the exercise has put to bed “a lot of the issues that were raised by the government and the EC when they wanted to embark on the [re-registration]”
Mr Segbefia mentioned the problem of bloating in the previous voter’s register. This he believes, could have been avoided, if a census had been conducted before registration.
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
