Press Release
The increasing optimism generated by Ghana’s series of successful elections has led to the depiction of Ghana as the bastion of democracy in Africa. This image is misleading given the multiple dysfunctional complexities that accompany our electoral and political processes.
GHANA FIRST MOVEMENT has observed that, the future of Ghana’s democracy remains uncertain as it continue to grapple with persistent and multiple challenges that threaten to subvert the peace and security being enjoyed by Ghanaians. These challenges are the election related violence which we experience every time we try to go through the processes of election being it limited registration or registration and voting.
These acts of violence which usually include threats and intimidation, physical and verbal assault, burning and looting of property, seizure of ballot boxes and disruption of party rallies and polling stations.
To bring an end to these, no single individual or the state should give an assumption that the Electoral Commission can hide under the guise of been independent and blatantly refuse to accept the contributions of other state institutions in the conduct of elections in this country being it registration of voters or voting.
The Electoral Commission requires the support of the National Identification Authority, the Security Agencies, and the Judiciary in times like this to make it difficult for players in an election to demonstrate violence during the process which will enable it to deliver free, fair and credible elections.
After the Supreme Court ruling on 5th May, 2016 ordering the Electoral Commission to delete names of over 600,000 dead people on our voters register and over 4,000,000 people on the register who used the national health insurance card to apply for registration as well as minors who found their way in the register during the 2012 registration.GHANA FIRST MOVEMENT request that, immediately government should resource the National Identification Authority to enable them deliver on their mandate of providing a national data system.
Without the national data system, any action of the Electoral Commission in cleaning or compiling the voters register is an exercise in futility which will not give us any credible register going into the November 7th 2016 elections. Players in the election will continue to be violent to disrupt the election processes disturbing the peace and security of our country.
We want a credible register for a free, fair and credible election this year for Ghanaians to continue to enjoy the peace and stability of the country.
GHANA FIRST MOVEMENT is appealing to all stakeholders, political parties, opinion leaders, social commentators, religious bodies, the international community and the general public to support the call asking government to task the NIA to deliver on their mandate with immediate effect providing a source data for the Electoral Commission to produce a credible register for the election scheduled to take place on 7th November, 2016.
Ghana needs to be peaceful, therefore we stand for peace, work for peace and fight for peace.
Long live Ghana.
Sign:
Isaac Conduah
(Convener)
0244541073
Eugene Gyamfi
(Chairman)
0244546867/0264975031
Felix Mantey
(Secretary)
0501451989