Ghana: Voter registration: Brong Ahafo, Ashanti regions chaotic

As the Electoral Commission’s Limited Voter Registration enters day six on Tuesday, the nationwide exercise has been marked by controversy especially in the Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions.


In the Ashanti Region, there have been claims of attacks on NPP officials at polling centers by NDC members.

The NPP says it will launch a reprisal if the attacks continue.

Ashanti Region Head of Security and Intelligence for the NPP Lt Col. (rtd) Ababio Serebuo, says the party will no longer be intimidated by the NDC, vowing to respond to any form of violence with equal force.

“We are prepared to resist the oppressor’s rule. NPP can never be intimidated. We cannot predict and guarantee the ramifications of these extreme provocations,” warned Lt Col (rtd) Serebuo.

The Electoral Commission has condemned vandalisation of its Biometric Voter Registration equipment at a registration centre in the Asokwa Sub-metro of the Ashanti Region.

“Such acts of lawlessness perpetrated by individuals whose sole motive is to disrupt the ongoing registration exercise cannot be countenanced, the EC said in a statement, signed by Mr Amadu Sulley, the Deputy Chairman, in Charge of Operations, and copied to Ghana News Agency, in Accra.

Also the Brong Ahafo region has recorded pockets of violence at centers over minors and foreign nationals being bused to register as first time voters.

Over the weekend, police in Tano South district invited the NDC constituency chairman for the area for questioning over an alleged attack and kidnap of seven members of the NPP’s rural campaign club.

Member of Parliament for Asutifi North Constituency in the Brong Ahafo region, Joseph Benhazin Dahah, claims he was severely beaten by thugs made up of the brother of the Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Collins Dauda.
According to him, he was at the Ntrotroso polling station to observe the on-going Limited Voter Registration exercise when the incident happened.

Speaking to Joy News’ Araba Koomson, Mr. Daha said, “I was there chatting with my party agents and asking them how the exercise was going when these people [thug] drove in”.

He narrated when the men got out of their car with Mr. Dauda’s brother pointed at him and directed the men to beat him up.

Police in the Brong Ahafo Region say they are yet to receive complaint about the alleged assault on the MP.