Alleged bloated register is not authentic - Afari-Djan

Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Djan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), on Tuesday said the document purported to contain massive increases of eligible voters in Ashanti Region between 2004 and 2006 was not authentic.

"The fact of the matter is that those huge figures being circulated are not authentic and I have given the correct figure to all representatives of the parties," Dr. Afari-Djan told the media after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting held in Accra. The meeting convened to discuss the upcoming voter ID card replacement and the replacement of lost voter ID cards and reopening of the voters' register was attended by representatives of all political parties with no journalists in attendance.

Explaining issues discussed at the meeting, Dr Afari-Djan said participants were briefed about EC's programmes for the year and participants sought clarifications.

He said participants expressed concern over the alleged bloated register but the EC produced and gave them the authentic figure of six per cent increase in the Ashanti Region instead of the alleged 113 per cent within the specified years.

The Chairman said he did not know how the wrong document got into the hands of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and who issued that document to them even though he was aware that the NDC had earlier requested for the register.

Asked if the wrong document being circulated had not dented the image of the EC, Dr Afari-Djan responded that the Commission had not done anything wrong.

"The figures we have given them are authentic and any right thinking person would accept that. We, however, will investigate the issue as agreed at the IPAC meeting and find out what went wrong, who gave out CD Rom and punish anyone found culpable."

Mr Peter Mac-Manu, Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, described that document as falsehood which people were peddling about the EC to demoralize and tarnish its image, "so that when the EC announces any election results which are not in their favour, they will (rubbish) it".

He therefore urged the EC to clear its image by making every effort to unravel how that conflicting figure got into the public domain. Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC said his party got information on the bloated figure from the EC on a CD Rom after writing officially to the Commission.

"But now that EC is saying the content on the CD Rom was not its document, we all agree that an investigation be conducted to ascertain the truth or otherwise," Mr Nketia said.

Source: GNA

CPP Can Recover 42 Lost Years

Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow Ghanaians, on the occasion of the 42nd anniversary of the overthrow of the CPP government the Convention People’s Party (United Kingdom and Ireland) joins Ghanaians the world over in solemn remembrance.

42 years after that treason, it is no accident that our beloved country has moved from one government to another, none showing the kind of vision and purposeful but benign authority an underdeveloped country like ours needs. From a country rich with ambition, energy and resources for long term development, Ghana has since the CPP been reduced to an absurd economic theatre where she gropes from one externally-imposed policy to another without a coherently thought-out destination in sight. The collapse of vision and of principled leadership has been total.

The CPP Government blazed a trail of African and Black emancipation and had persevered in determined struggle to assert our collective dignity and chart a new destiny for all Ghanaians.

As fathers, mothers, elders, professionals, farmers, intellectuals, businesspeople , workers in general and citizens of Ghana, we have all benefited directly or indirectly from the CPP’s vision and legacy. Ghanaians campaigned for “positive change” in 2000 and rejected the NDC governments economic programme and direction, which had inflicted so much hardship on our nation, showing their disdain also for NDC corruption. The NPP had unfortunately followed the same path inflicting even greater hardship on Ghanaians – the price of basic food such as Kenkey as risen by a1000%, with petroleum prices rising by nearly 700%, affecting transportation costs as well as utility prices. This is causing much distress and further impoverishing ordinary people in our country.

The NPP’s capricious cronyism and arrogant corruption has continued to devalue the development effort and aspirations of all of us. It is our hope and prayer that we shall all resolve to repay the debt to our beloved country so that she might recapture the status and reputation she rightly enjoyed in decades past under CPP government, which made her the lodestar of Africa

As Ghana prepares for elections at the end of this year we ask fellow Ghanaians to use this occasion to take careful stock of the national situation. For the first time since 1966 there is a real opportunity for a breakthrough in installing a CPP government once again, an opportunity to get a truly people centred government , offering more efficient government with less ministers, a boost to the public sector as well as Ghanaian businesses, an opportunity to review our institutions and make the strategic decisions necessary for transforming our society into one fit for all its people and not just a privileged few.

Let us all summon courage not just for the sake of today’s youth but also for future generations and make a date with CHANGE and FRESH LEADERSHIP now.

Long Live Ghana

Communications Directorate – www.cppuk.org info@cppuk.org cppyouth@gmail.com

Source: Communications Directorate – www.cppuk.org