Independent presidential candidate in the last two elections in Ghana, Jacob Osei Yeboah (JOY), has censured the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Voter Register (IPRAN) for protesting against Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) over its decision to reject the existing voter ID cards for the impending new voter registration exercise.
Rejection of the existing voter ID card by the EC as a required document for the registration, he says, is legal per the 1992 Constitution thus describing the argument by IPRAN as baseless.
Speaking to Nana Yaw Opare on the Yensempa morning show on Onua FM on Wednesday, June 17, Jacob Osei Yeboah, popularly known as JOY, admonished NDC and IPRAN to cease fire on misleading and confusing the general public.
He has indicated that the EC’s decision to reject the existing voter ID card is legal as entrenched in the constitution and any attempt to include or accept the old voter ID card as a required document for the registration exercise would compromise the integrity of the register.
The Co-founder of United Movement for Change (UMC) thus chided NDC’s leadership for counterattacking the Commission for delivering on its constitutional mandate.
Additionally, he censured the Minority in Parliament for endorsing and passing into law the National Identification Authority (NIA) Act 950, which ruled out the voter’s ID card as a national identity card in 2017.
The electrical engineer and an identity management officer was livid and expressed fret over NDC’s unrelenting protest against the new voter registration, stating the party has refused to implement issues discussed at Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings.
He has asserted the protests and series of demonstrations staged by IPRAN is a grand scheme and political strategy to distract the EC and, as well, make the government unpopular in fooling the general public from participating in the exercise should it be opened.
Jacob Osei Yeboah has strongly cautioned NDC leadership to help maintain peace in the country and as well desist from inciting the public for a civil war because of EC’s resolution to compile a new voters’ register.
He has urged NDC leadership to quickly make a U-turn and begin advocating and mobilizing supporters to fully participate in the registration exercise instead of persistently “misleading” party followers to disenfranchise them from exercising their right.
By Maxwell Otoo|3news.com|Ghana