Voting can no longer be said to be a token of participation. It has implications for our future.
The right choice at elections secures our future and protects progressive legacies. Every election must guarantee change in continuity. It is against this backdrop that we encourage the youth to take advantage of the ongoing registration exercise to get the power to vote in the December 7, 2024 elections.
The upcoming polls offer the electorate the opportunity to protect legacies such as the free SHS and the mobile money interoperability, especially the digital economy as against the reality of over four years dumsor during the reign of John Mahama.
While we encourage the youth who have turned 18 years not to lose the opportunity to register, we in the same vein urge the EC to do all it takes to stabilise internet connectivity at all the registration centres. We are aware of the EC’s directive to its officers to go offline in the event of the technical challenges in order to register all those who have besieged the centres to register. Nothing should be done to reduce the level of enthusiasm among the youth who recognise the exercise as the best way to participate in the critical decision time on December 7, 2024.
We are in no doubt about the ability of the Jean Mensa-led EC to deliver to the satisfaction of all Ghanaians just as it did in 2020 during the registration exercise and subsequently on December 7, 2020.
We need not remind the EC to be wary of the NDC’s wish that the Commission fails in the discharge of its duties. Sadly, some civil society groups such as IMANI and certain media houses have joined forces with the NDC to undermine the integrity and efficiency of the EC.
To the NDC and its allies, the EC is the proverbial chicken whose efforts can never please the hawk, which in our circumstances is the Umbrella Family and its friends. They have started preparing the minds of the people about their imaginary belief that the EC is in bed with the NPP to rig the elections.
The EC must put the NDC to shame by making sure all eligible voters are captured on the electoral roll.
While we urge the EC to step up its game, we appeal to the political parties to educate their agents about the rules of the exercise. The agents must stop preventing people from registering but to file protests so that the registration centres do not become boxing rings. All bottlenecks to a successful registration exercise must be removed even if the naysayers are determined to put roadblocks in the way of the Commission.
We will judge the EC by the outcome of its mandates but not about the activities of some stakeholders who operate as hawks. It is early days yet to predict failure of the exercise, albeit in the face of unreliable internet connectivity.
The EC must be aware of the enormity of the task and we encourage Jean Mensa to provide the usual leadership to meet the target of registering over 600,000 eligible voters.
Despite assurances from the election management body that it does not, and indeed has no capacity to manipulate electoral figures in favour of any political party, some political players especially from the NDC think presently, the EC is in bed with the NPP government to rig the December polls.
We always ask whether these nightmares of the NDC is the case of the executioner being afraid of lying supine.
The NDC, has maintained a very loud silence on this simple question. Whatever, the teething problems associated with the exercise in the early days, we urge everybody who has turned 18 years to find his or her way to the registration centres. There is no sacrifice worth more than spending time to register now in order to take part in the country’s governance processes.
We urge the youth to have an objective in mind as they trek to the registration centres for their voters’ ID cards to choose a leader who is visionary like President Akufo-Addo, whose decision to introduce Free SHS has changed the dynamics of education since 2017.