The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused government of deliberately disenfranchising thousands of students at the University of Ghana and other campuses across the country during the just ended limited voters registration exercise.
According to the National Youth Organizer of the NPP, Sammy Awuku government through the Electoral Commission intentionally allocated the University of Ghana with inadequate registration equipment, a situation that saw teeming numbers of first time voters unable to have their names in the voters register.
Out of a registrable population of 8,000 in Legon, only about 400 people successfully registered in the first phase of the exercise.
It remained absurd to many people why the EC would site just one registration centre at the University of Ghana campus with such large number of registrants, only to add two more centres two days to the end of the exercise; a situation which left more than half of the eligible registrants disenfranchised.
Speaking on Peace FM Tuesday, Sammy Awuku stated that the EC cannot give any tangible reason for their action at the Legon campus, but added that he was not shocked by the commission’s conduct, as that inures to the government’s benefit.
“I’m not surprised because the government has lost trust and popular support on the various campuses. The ruling NDC government has over the years performed poorly on our university campuses. If you check the results you’ll realize that NPP wins. So it will not be in the NDC’s interest to allow thousands of youth on the various campuses to register, which is a fair analysis.
“However those who had queued but were unsuccessful in registering are not all going to vote for the NPP, so I’m not speaking for only those who would vote for NPP, but talking for those who the state has turned its back on them and has become an impediment between them and their desire to have a national ID card that will allow them to be part of the decision making process. That is what saddens my heart.”
