The National Democratic Congress (NDC) have offered “unequivocal support” to Convener of the Inter-Party Resistance Against A New Voter Register (IPRAN) Bernard Mornah for comments he made at a recent press conference in Accra, for which the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service has invited him.
Mr Mornah, who is also the National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), is said to have threatened to resist the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) in its bid to compile a new voter register for the December 7 elections.
He told journalists on Tuesday, May 26 that IPRAN will make registration centres “not conducive” for EC’s registration officers if the scheduled date of late June is followed for the commencement of the exercise.
“On that day when they go there and realise that the environment is not conducive, they will know that resistance has taken place,” he stated.
But Mr Mornah was immediately invited by the CID for the comments via a letter signed by DCOP Barima Tweneboah Sasraku II.
He is to report at the CID Headquarters on Tuesday, June 2.
But in a press release issued by its Deputy General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor, the NDC has asked all its members to join Mr Mornah in solidarity to the CID Headquarters on Tuesday.
“We wish to state our unequivocal support for the caution Comrade Mornah offered to the EC at the said press conference, in respect of the potential outbreak of political violence at registration centers, as a result of the exclusion of the existing voters ID card from the list of identification requirements for the new voter registration exercise the EC intends to undertake.
“For purposes of emphasis, the NDC wholly endorses and subscribes fully to the comments made by Comrade Bernard Mornah.”
The largest opposition party explained: “Indeed, the entrenched decision of the Jean Mensah-led EC to compile a needless, illogical and wasteful new voters’ register for the 2020 general elections has the tendency to spark chaos and electoral violence across the country.”
It reiterated that the EC, the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) want to collude to have Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo re-elected.
“The invitation of comrade Mornah by the Ghana Police Service is nothing but political puppetism on the part of the Ghana Police service and part of a grand orchestration by the NPP government to intimidate and demobilize the front of the Resistance in its spirited opposition to the needless and illogical decision of the EC to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 polls.
“We wish to send a strong and clear caution to the Akufo-Addo government that no amount of intimidation can cower us into silence or quench our unwavering determination to stop the reckless new voters’ register agenda of the Jean Mensah-led EC.”
“We are convinced that, the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission is determined to skew the Voter Registration process in order to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters in order to rig the 2020 general elections for the President Akufo Addo and the ruling NPP. And, we shall employ every legitimate means to stop this evil conspiracy of the EC, NIA and the ruling NPP.
“The Resistance remains committed to the intrinsic responsibility bestowed on us by the 1992 Constitution of the Republic to protect and maintain the sanctity of Ghana’s electoral process and to resist the oppressors rule.
“We invite all members of the great NDC and general public to rise in solidarity with our comrade and National Chairman of the PNC, Comrade Bernard Mornah on Tuesday at the CID Headquarters.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana