Mustapha Foyo Gbande, a Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has said that the lack of vigilance on the part of his party members resulted to their defeat in the 2020 elections.
He has said on Onua TV’s morning show, Maakye, that the NDC slept on the job in the last poll and it is something they are not going to allow to happen this time around.
“Captain, I must admit, we slept in 2020, we were asleep and this time around we are well awake,” Mustapha Gbande stated Tuesday, September 03, 2024.
He alleged that the government is using a Deputy Chairperson of the Commission, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, to manipulate the processes to rig the polls.
“Bossman is the one being used currently by government. He is a dangerous actor at the Electoral Commission today. He is the first Deputy Commissioner to be protected by six armed soldiers and being driven by a driver. Even the IGP, who is the head of the entire Ghana Police Service, is he protected by armed military men? The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, is he protected by armed military men? What does Bossman have to hide?” he quizzed on the show.
Gbande’s concerns stem from some errors in the voters’ register which the NDC drew the attention of the EC on.
The NDC had earlier accused the Commission of deliberately transferring people from their place of voting to other centres whilst they were not aware of the development.
The party issued a statement and demanded the Commission to explain to the public how those errors came about. In a press conference addressed by the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, he admitted that although there were errors, those were not intentional and also to aid any rigging as the NDC alleged.
“Preliminary investigations by the Commission have revealed that voter transfers were indeed effected for Thirty-Eight (38) individuals using the credentials of an Electoral Commission Official. The records of those transfers are captured in the Voter Management System’s (VMS) audit logs. A look at the verification done during the transfer process shows that photos of the voters from their Voter ID Cards were used for facial verification and to effect the transfer,” he disclosed.
“It is also absolutely untrue that the Commission has added names to the Voters Register in a bid to rig the elections for a particular party. Those allegations are without merit and should be disregarded by the Public. The EC has no intention of bloating the register to give any political party advantage over the other,” Dr. Asare added.
EC’s statements on robust, credible register was a farce – NDC
