Elvis Afriyie Ankrah
A LEAKED audio interaction
from a crucial meeting of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party
has revealed it intends to scuttle the compilation of a new voters’ register by
occupying the head office of the Electoral Commission (EC) and bringing Accra
to a standstill.
The party’s
Director of Elections, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, was captured in the audio
encouraging members of the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the party
and some top personalities to stand up against a new voters’ register.
His passion for
a Machiavellian approach could not have offered a better reason for their
resentment of a new voters’ register.
He said if the
party does not take employ such a measure against a new voters’ register that
could spell an electoral disaster for the NDC in the 2020 polls.
He recalled the
party’s ability to engage in such disturbance of the public peace, saying “we have
done it before.”
“If we invest GH¢200,000,
GH¢500,000, GH¢1 million and fight this register, bring Accra to a standstill
for once, occupy the EC head office, and we can do it, we have done it before,”
he said.
This, coming on
the heels of a press conference the party held recently to express their
misgivings about a new voters’ register, is enough indication of how a
replacement of the roll of voters is a dreadful subject to the party.
Learn from Buhari
Recalling what
he observed in Nigeria as an ECOWAS observer during the country’s last presidential polls, he said “all Buhari did was to suppress votes in the strong
holds of his opponents and then allow free votes in his strongholds and he won
in spite of the fact that he was so unpopular.”
Wasted Money
He advised the party leadership not to joke with the
subject as he laid bare his analysis of the situation.
Considering the whopping amount of money that the party
intends to spend on the elections, he said the venture would be a waste should
the polls be lost.
“We should not joke with this thing and if
we do the analysis properly, we are going to spend hundreds of millions of
Ghana Cedis to do the campaign. If we lose, ‘God forbid, God Forbid’ the
election, all that money would have gone to waste,” he stressed.
“If
we invest GH¢200,000, GH¢500,000 and fight this register, bring Accra to a
standstill for once, occupy the EC head office and we can do it; we have done
it before. These are things we have been doing even as ordinary students. We brought
the Ministry of Finance to a standstill and the Ministry of Education to a
standstill. We can do it; it is possible. Let’s have confidence in ourselves
and stop the defeatist attitude; we can do it,” he said.
NPP Will Easily Cave In
The
many withdrawn bills, according to him, suggest that the NPP would easily be
cowed into withdrawing the bill on the subject as it has done to many before
it.
“We
can move people and bring this country to a standstill. Just one day and they
will withdraw. They have withdrawn many, many other bills so it is not
impossible,” he charged.
He
re-echoed that even if the bill is passed “we must resist this thing; we can do
it.”
Asiedu Nketia Press Conference
At a press
conference held at the party’s headquarters earlier, the General Secretary of
the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, had given reasons why the opposition party is
against the compilation of a new voters’ register.
Closeness To Elections
According to
him, the elections are too close and that the decision itself is a contravention
of some aspects of ECOWAS Protocol.
Expensive Venture
He added that a new voters’ register would be too expensive and that the amount involved could be used to build roads and schools.
By A.R. Gomda
