NDC rejects EC claims that political parties are busing minors for voter registration | The Big Stories
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00:00 You're welcome back and you've been watching, you're still watching the AM show.
00:04 Just gone by an interesting discussion from Moustana Bila interviewing the former Black
00:09 Stars Queens coach, or if I beg your pardon, the former Black Queens coach.
00:15 That's Messi Tegu Kwaku with that interesting discussion.
00:19 We'll be going to Safari Valley for the interesting discussion on tourism.
00:24 But right now we'll be discussing the EC concerns about minors being registered at the ongoing
00:30 voter limited voter registration exercise.
00:33 And joining me for this discussion is Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mustafa Bandi,
00:39 who has some concerns about the EC's allegations.
00:44 Mr. Bandi, thank you for joining us on the AM show.
00:46 Thank you very much for having me this morning.
00:49 Right.
00:50 Let's delve right into it.
00:51 The NDC has been complaining about registering minors and they've even said they've registered
00:56 over 7,000 of those in their register so far.
01:00 What do you make of these concerns?
01:03 Thank you very much.
01:04 I think that first of all, the NDC as a political party believes that if you are not of age
01:15 in accordance with that political party, you should not have your way into a voter register.
01:26 A voter register must be clean and transparent enough reserved for people who are of age,
01:34 sound mind, and people who are gay.
01:37 And so anything extra is something that undermines the credibility of our election process.
01:49 The EC's positioning yesterday is quite surprising, very alarmist, exaggerative, and very lame.
02:00 To the extent that the registration exercise is still ongoing, every day the EC records
02:13 will show, because we in the NDC are also collating figures every day.
02:20 Our election directorates have a center that takes data every day.
02:25 By at least 9 p.m. we know what has happened across the country.
02:31 We have also monitored the exercise.
02:33 You will go to a place where the EC officer there will tell you something.
02:38 200 people have been selected.
02:41 The adjudicating committee has started and they have cleared 50 or 150.
02:46 The remaining are here and yet to be cleared or dealt with.
02:51 When you lump these data and you come on a podium to report those people as minors on
03:00 the basis of using an exercise, I don't think that is logical enough.
03:06 But Mr. Abande, from your own checks, these allegations of some of your party members
03:13 or even executives or even from the opposition party, busing minors to the registration centers,
03:20 is that true?
03:21 That those people are wearing NDC shirts and they are wearing MPT shirts, that is not the
03:27 ground to establish whether somebody is a minor or not.
03:31 We are in a political season.
03:33 The fact that we've seen people being bashed does not suggest that they are minors.
03:38 What will establish a minor is when the person has appeared before a registration center,
03:45 presented himself, gone through the process by law, and failed to establish the criteria
03:56 as the electoral commission process requires.
03:59 That is why those people are challenged.
04:01 At the end of the day, to accept total minors, you would have to deduct the data of people
04:12 challenged who are foreigners from the people who are challenged on grounds of age.
04:19 And even in that data, the committee adjudicating on the issues are still sitting.
04:26 This committee is chaired by the electoral commission district officer, with representatives
04:32 of political parties, and that they will require further and better particulars of people who
04:39 are being challenged either by the MPT or the NDC in order to qualify or to be given
04:45 voted ID cards.
04:46 Until that is done, and they move in the middle of the exercise, as the EC has done, it's
04:54 very lame.
04:55 We cannot refer to people on the basis that they are suspected to be minors or suspected
05:00 to be foreigners, and then we say that they are all foreigners.
05:03 Well, from your own checks, what have you established so far?
05:07 What we have established is that the EC is in haste.
05:10 The EC is being alarming.
05:12 The EC is reducing the essence of the registration exercise into a campaign for new CI.
05:19 And that, for me, is not correct.
05:22 The exercise is ongoing.
05:26 There have been manifested challenges, operational challenges, that we expect the electoral commissioner
05:32 to be very proactive in dealing with.
05:34 She is telling us that, oh, you can shelve your concerns, you can forego the concerns,
05:40 you can allow MPs to continue to fit the number of people in the queues, you can allow people
05:46 to continue to transport themselves and get in accidents, and that we'll do subsequent
05:50 registration.
05:51 People who cannot join this one should wait so that they join subsequent registration.
05:56 Is that correct?
05:57 Is that the way to run a system?
06:00 What do you mean Kenyans have complained about this system?
06:04 And saying that, listen, the way and manner you are carrying out the registration exercise,
06:09 64 percent of your own data shows that the people who have registered in this exercise
06:16 use the guarantor system.
06:19 What does that presuppose is that without the guarantor system, 64 percent of the people
06:27 who have registered would not have gotten the opportunity to register at all.
06:32 That is a clear violation of Article 32.
06:34 Well, Mr. Ogbande, kindly hold on on the line for me.
06:38 I have with me also Harina Mohammed, deputy general secretary of the NPP.
06:43 Join me via the phone lines.
06:44 Mr. Mohammed, these are the allegations coming from the EC that minors are being registered
06:50 in the ongoing limited registration exercise.
06:53 The allegation is that party members or parties, the parties that are available, are bashing
06:59 in minors to get registered.
07:01 What is your own assertion of these allegations?
07:03 Thank you very much.
07:06 I think this is a worry for me.
07:09 The Nipah Party has raised concerns over the registration of minors over the time.
07:15 Mr. President, Vice President, has gone through as an advocate of our party on the national
07:22 level, has complained about this matter.
07:25 Mr. Mohammed, can you speak up for me please?
07:29 Your voice seems to be a bit low.
07:31 Okay, I'm saying that this is a matter that is a concern for all of us.
07:37 The NPP has raised concerns over registration of minors.
07:43 We have been monitoring at the centers.
07:47 At some point in time, we have seen that minors are in the queue.
07:53 Some of your sister states have interviewed people, specifically the Tamale Registration
07:59 Center, where I did a lot of monitoring there.
08:03 We saw a lot of mice.
08:05 It is not good for us as a democracy.
08:09 We will not be able to tell who are the people doing so.
08:13 But from where I was in Tamale, I saw clearly the NDP sending people, minors there, and
08:22 depending on these minors, writing pipettes onto their hands for them to go and register.
08:29 So I'm not surprised that the NDP is not speaking about this illegality, but they are seeking
08:35 to go around and say the EC is trying to justify the use of only Ghana card.
08:43 I think that if you look at the percentage...
08:46 And before you go on, Mr. Mohammed, when you saw this, what did you do?
08:51 Did you report this to the police, saying that it is an illegality?
08:54 We reported to the officials.
08:56 We reported to the officials that this is what is happening.
08:59 The police officers that were there at some point in time, if you check, that's what
09:03 you will see, that a lot of them have been challenged.
09:06 That is why it is mentioned, the EC has mentioned that, that is why there is a lot of challenge.
09:11 Yes, our agents are there.
09:13 They are challenging these people in terms of their registration, and it is worrisome.
09:18 This is the future of Ghana.
09:21 These people will heckle and then grow to become proper citizens, and they are agents
09:28 of this age from the beginning, just because somebody has hesitated to become president
09:34 or come back to power.
09:36 Let's speak to their actions and stop attacking the EC, just because they have said, or they
09:42 have not done something that you think that they should have done.
09:45 We are all worried.
09:47 We are all worried.
09:48 It is something that is illegal, and I think that this is something we have to all tackle.
09:53 Yes, the Grand Dagne system is the system people have used to register most in this
09:58 particular registration.
09:59 It is the same system that is slowing down this registration.
10:03 It is the same system.
10:05 If there is a use of Ghana card, everybody's age, everybody's age and every detail is on
10:12 that particular Ghana card.
10:14 And I think that if we are all facing one fault, I think that is going to be very good
10:20 for all of us.
10:21 And my law registration is something that the NCP has not supported at all.
10:26 Not, not, not, not, not.
10:28 Well, Mr. Mohamed, with these allegations you are making, in which form were these people
10:35 registering?
10:36 Were they using the Garanta system or were they using the Ghana card?
10:39 All of them.
10:40 All of them, they are using the Garanta system.
10:42 I said they will write it into their papers.
10:45 They will write it in their papers and give it to them.
10:48 I'm from the north.
10:49 I monitored from Camali.
10:51 I monitored the entire northeast.
10:52 I monitored at the north origin.
10:54 I'm telling you that in the Camali country, if you go and check, you will see.
10:59 And your social TV station, one of your social TV stations, interviewed one of the girls
11:05 who were registering.
11:06 He said, "I'm 14 years of age and they have not still come to register me.
11:10 I am there for how many years?
11:12 Since yesterday."
11:18 On national television, it's very worrisome.
11:21 It's very, very worrisome because these are people that will get up and they will want
11:26 to do something official.
11:27 Meanwhile, their ages have been altered.
11:30 And they will retire when they are still very young.
11:34 It's not good at all.
11:35 Let's tackle that issue.
11:36 It's a canker.
11:37 Let all of us look at this and make sure that we put minors aside because the constitution
11:43 that has given the right for people to register and vote, they did not say when they are not
11:49 up to age, they should go and register.
11:52 This is a major issue.
11:53 Let's tackle the issue of minors.
11:55 Is it a legitimate call from the EC or is it illegitimate?
11:59 It is a legitimate call because minors are not supposed to register.
12:04 We can interrogate other issues that we think that is going to beautify the registration process.
12:10 But let's stop attacking the EC if we think that a legitimate call has been made and minors
12:16 are not supposed to register.
12:17 Well, Mr. Mohamed, hold on for me.
12:19 Mr. Bande, I mean to dismiss the doubts of this issue of minors registering in this exercise,
12:25 do you think the guarantee system should be made away with?
12:30 I think my brother has just woken up so he hasn't refreshed his memory.
12:35 So I can understand where he's coming from.
12:37 But let it be on record that my brother Mohamed, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDP, is
12:43 accusing the Northern Region of registering minors.
12:47 And that his understanding of minors registering is when you lump a data of people who have
12:55 been yet to face an adjudication committee to produce further and better particulars
13:02 to justify why they should be registered amounts to being a minor.
13:07 And that he actually agrees that the EC can now demonstrate by pictures, pictorial views,
13:17 pictures we don't know where they took them from, pictures we don't know where they are
13:21 coming from, and accuse political parties or the NDP or any other political party, the
13:26 MPP, of registering minors.
13:28 Because in this case they didn't even say that it's a particular political party.
13:32 They said political parties.
13:34 The NDP, as we said, would want to have a credible system.
13:39 We will not sing the same song with the MPP.
13:41 They are not trustworthy.
13:42 They go and have meetings with the EC, come back to come and jump and be accusing people
13:47 of wrongdoing.
13:48 When the data before them have not yet been verified, that data is subjected to adjudication.
13:56 By the time we finish the exercise, the EC officers would have adjudicated the minor
14:02 and qualified and actually registered the people who are able to prove their age.
14:07 Number two, the guarantor system is a system that all of us wish that we have a better
14:14 system.
14:15 But that window is reserved for people who do not have official documents, public documents
14:23 to justify their nationality or date of birth.
14:27 And so people who have to guarantee for their...
14:29 In fact, purposefully, the guarantor system is to show that you are Ghanaian and that
14:34 people can identify you in a particular society.
14:37 64% of the current registration demonstrate that people have used the guarantor system.
14:43 What that means is that we should tackle it from having Ghana cards for all Ghanaians.
14:49 The MDC's arguments have always been that.
14:52 Look, Ghanaians do not have access to the Ghana card.
14:56 The MPP is holding... and government is holding the Ghana card as a cocaine and they won't
15:02 let Ghanaians have access to it.
15:04 If you go to offices of NIA, you cannot even get access to register.
15:08 So until we cross that bridge, you cannot say that people who do not have public documents
15:14 such as Ghana card should not be able to register in accordance with Article 42.
15:19 Article 43 of the EC's, you know, functions demonstrate that they must take credible measures
15:26 to expand the voter's register in accordance with population growth.
15:30 The population keeps growing.
15:32 If you look at the queues today as we speak, the queues are more and more and more.
15:38 What it means is that you have a lot of young people who want to register and vote.
15:42 Do they have Ghana cards? No, they don't have.
15:45 Is it their fault?
15:46 And so when you leave the operational challenges and you jump to a propaganda platform to say
15:54 that you are advocating for the passage of a new CI without paging the current system,
15:59 we are in the same issue.
16:01 Government must understand that when you accuse somebody, you have an honor to establish a proof.
16:09 When these same challenges of individual applicants is done by either NGC or MPP.
16:17 My brother hasn't gone to tour the exercise, so he doesn't know what is happening on the ground.
16:21 He's listening to my brother.
16:22 When you go to the registration exercises, you will see that EC officials will give you a report
16:29 and tell you that we have challenged individuals.
16:33 This is the data.
16:34 We have so far cleared this number of people.
16:37 The rest, we are waiting to sit on it again.
16:39 You cannot lump that data and come and accuse the people of being minors.
16:43 EC's position is lame and very exaggerated.
16:47 Well, Mr. Kwande, but we cannot dismiss the allegations that EC is making.
16:51 They are the body that is registering these people.
16:54 We are not dismissing it at all.
16:56 We are not dismissing it at all.
16:58 We are saying that these people...
17:00 Exactly. So my question is, seeing that this is a problem, what then is the way forward?
17:06 Seeing that you don't want the guarantee system to be done away with yet, what then is the way forward?
17:12 The NGC is not dismissing EC's position.
17:17 But we are just saying that that position must be expressed in a context that is logical,
17:23 in a context that resonates with the exercise.
17:26 Practically what is happening is that they have gone to take data of challenged applicants,
17:32 lump all of those people as minors.
17:35 What about those who are suspected for events?
17:37 Three days ago, if you go to the treatment staff, the NCP brought Ivorians to come and register.
17:43 We have to drive them away.
17:45 Let my brother call the treatment staff.
17:47 I am on the ground, so I have information.
17:49 He doesn't have the information.
17:51 Let him go to the treatment staff.
17:53 Right.
17:54 Of course, the way forward is that the EC should be seen doing their work well.
18:00 They should not shortchange Ghanaians in favour of government.
18:04 These people who go and sit in secret meetings with EC officials, sit in government offices,
18:09 and come back and start very alarming accusations that cannot be substantiated.
18:13 That is a problem. That is a problem.
18:15 When you have an EC commissioner that is, you know, happy doing what is politically expedient
18:21 and what is expedient for the purposes of transparency, then we have a problem.
18:28 What is your way forward to ensure that this is not a reality?
18:35 Our way forward is that, as we speak today, the EC should understand that a lot of young Ghanaians are in the queue.
18:45 They are desirous. They are impatient. They want to register in order to vote.
18:51 And so let us take practical measures to ensure that we register these people.
18:58 We are happy that the system is naturally running.
19:01 It has its own checks and balances, collaboratively with political parties,
19:07 to ensure that minors and foreigners do not get onto our voter register.
19:12 The same guarantor system that we use to register people for EC is the same guarantor system we have on the NIA card.
19:21 So any attempt to invalidate the guarantor system without putting down proper measures
19:30 will also amount to invalidating all the Ghana cardholders who are quite through the guarantor system.
19:37 And so they should not have this conversation at all.
19:40 They should rather put in practical measures.
19:43 They are the referees of the electioneering process.
19:46 Practical measures that will ensure transparent, credible elections.
19:51 The current EC is below the bar, as we speak.
19:54 They have not reached that threshold.
19:56 How do we progress when you have an EC that is clammy?
20:00 How do we progress when you have an EC that will not listen to anybody except Quebec government influence?
20:09 Except Quebec MPP influence?
20:13 Is Mohammed happy that my people in the north will have to transport themselves
20:21 from all the villages onto the district capital?
20:24 Is the deputy general secretary of the MPP happy about that?
20:27 Is he happy that in spite of the joblessness in the north, people will have to sit in Motoki?
20:34 And he knows that because we are from the north.
20:37 We have to transport themselves to a district capital,
20:41 will not get food to eat, will not get water to drink,
20:44 just to register for a voter ID card.
20:46 Is he happy about that?
20:48 What a very shameful position.
20:50 And then you come to sit on radio and accuse northerners of baffling miners to go and register.
20:56 Is he happy about, is he proud of his position?
20:59 So, grateful, grateful for your time here, gentlemen.
21:03 We've been speaking to Mustafa Bande, deputy general secretary of the NDC,
21:08 and Harun Amo Mohammed, also deputy general secretary of the MPP,
21:12 sharing their views on the just limited registration exercise ongoing by the EC.
21:18 And you're still watching the AM Show.
21:20 We'll be going to Safari Valley shortly to tell you, I mean,
21:24 that conversation about the tourism sector and the prospects we have for Ghana.
21:28 We'll be right back after this break.
21:32 [Music]
21:57 you