Ignore Warmongers – Freddie Blay

The National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, has asked Ghanaians to ignore naysayers who have been spewing war propaganda and screaming lies and hatred over the compilation of a new voters’ register.

He said efforts by personalities like the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, Major Boakye Gyan (rtd)  and Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah are only intended to incite fear in the country.

According to him, the deliberate attempt by members of the NDC to generate a culture of fear is not only “wicked” propaganda, but also “opportunistic” behaviour which obscures reason.

The NPP chairman urged the CSO Alliance and Inter-Party Resistance Against the New Voters’ Register to “spare Ghanaians the provocative and empty threats of chaos, confusion, bloodshed and death in the name of protecting the Constitution.”

He said the NDC leadership appeared frustrated in less than four years in opposition and continued to pour out “irresponsible utterances”. He noted that the opposition elements kept exhibiting inconsistent behaviour and dwelling in the cycle of shifting goalpost.

“They have moved away from the cost of procuring a new voter register to the cost of lives for going through a progressive electoral process. Clearly, it demonstrates their inconsistencies and hypocrisy,” Mr. Blay said in a statement to the media.

He described attacks on the Electoral Commission (EC) as absolutely needless, explaining that the EC cannot be subjected to the control and direction of any person or authority, since such a move would amount to “unconstitutional”.

The NPP chairman said the compilation of a new register was a prerogative of the EC as captured in the 1992 Constitution. “The 1992 Constitution clearly states out the functions of the Electoral Commission which include compiling the register of

voters and revise same at such periods as may be determined by law and to undertake programmes for the expansion of the registration of voters,” he stressed.

According to him, the people, who are vehemently opposed to the compilation of a new voters’ register using Covid-19 as trump card, are in pursuit of their “parochial and self-serving interests”.

“They seem to forget that the December 7 elections would not be any different because Ghanaians would be expected to queue to cast their votes and also witness the votes counted and recorded as prescribed in the 1992 Constitution through a new electoral process,” he  pointed out.

He added that the advent of Covid-19 had offered Ghanaians a great opportunity to work together in terms of attitudinal change towards collectively building a disciplined and prosperous nation.