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The nationwide registration exercise is scheduled to end on Sunday, May 8 after entering its second phase on Wednesday, May 4.

But the students claim about 100,000 risk being disenfranchised as a result of the EC failing “to provide registration centres on some campuses or chosen to not provide adequate registration kits on campus to facilitate the process”.

This was contained in statement issued on Tuesday, May 3.

“We have had instances where students have had to queue for days without success, whiles having to respond to the natural pressures of revising for exams,” the statement said.

Read full statement below:

PRESS RELEASE

STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION OF GHANA (USAG) TO THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION (EC) OF GHANA

USAG CONCERNED ABOUT EFFECTIVE DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF GHANAIAN STUDENTS BY EC

We write to register our concerns over the ongoing limited registration exercise which we are afraid is not designed to encourage or allow eligible Ghanaians who are students to register to vote in 2016.

The Commission has set a 10-day period for this limited registration exercise, starting from April 28 to May 8. We are already half way through the exercise and per our calculations, less than 10 percent of the estimated number of young Ghanaian students eligible to vote has been able to so far register. If this trend continues, we are afraid it will amount effectively to an administrative decision taken by the EC that has only led to disenfranchising the majority of young Ghanaian students who have come of age to vote. This would be a tragedy against our democracy.

Currently, over 100,000 Ghanaian students across campuses up and down the country are facing challenges just trying to register. This is because the EC has either failed to provide registration centres on some campuses or chosen to not provide adequate registration kits on campus to facilitate the process.

We have had instances where students have had to queue for days without success, whiles having to respond to the natural pressures of revising for exams.

For instance, the University of Ghana, Legon, has about 28,000 students on campus and most of them are in the qualifying category to register. However the whole Legon Campus community has only one registration center.

The Mampong campus of the University of Education has no registration centre on campus. The students have access to a centre inconveniently situated outside of the campus.

Also, the highly populated Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology has not a single registration centre on campus. Students wanting to register have to trek outside of campus to do so.

Indeed, there is not a single tertiary institution in Ghana which has not been inconvenienced by the way the EC has chosen to conduct this exercise. Indeed, students are even compelled by the circumstances to conclude that it appears the EC has deliberately done things in this way to discourage them from registering to vote.

This perception is very unfortunate and needless. It was avoidable because the EC knows from experience and from its own expectation to register 1.2 million people that the highest concentration of the targeted group for the limited registration exercise are to be found on campuses across the country. So in deciding to distribute 3,500 registration kits across the country it ought to have positively discriminated in favour of students and deployed more than the usual number to campuses.

In this regard we entreat the EC to as a matter of urgency:

1. Extend the days for the limited voter registration exercise on our campuses across the country and;

2. Increase the number of registration kits available on campuses to facilitate speedy and smooth process.

This we believe will make the limited voter registration exercise meaningful and inclusive to achieve the goal of enfranchising new eligible voters. The EC cannot claim to be registering Ghanaians who have come of age when at the same time it has put together a process that effectively prevents people from registering or frustrates their efforts to so do. This is most odd, indeed.

It is our expectation that the Commission will treat this matter with the urgency, efficiency and professionalism it deserves. Ghanaian students have a constitutional duty and right to play their full part in determining how our nation is governed. To take this away is to effectively cause a coup against our collective constitutional right and duty.

Source: tv3network.com|Ghana

The former first lady contends that the four-year election cycle sometimes tends to be frustrating especially under a non-performing regimes.

The recently endorsed flagbearer of the NDP made this known on Wednesday, May 4 in an exclusive interview on TV3’s New Day.

“The people must be so empowered that we run a system that can actually give us a chance…in America they will impeach you. In the UK, they will say call new elections. Here, we have to wait till they plummet us on the head with the hammer almost in the ground before an election comes again.”

4 or 8 years

She said most Ghanaians even assume the presidential mandate is eight years. Nana Konadu blames the situation on the way the constitution has been drafted.

“We should look at our constitution again because it looks like we have a constitution that allows us to change leaders every four years. Some think it is 8 years…No it is four years. If you perform well we give you another four years. If you don’t perform well and [have] done abysmally, you don’t force us to take you back,” she told host Bright Nana Amfoh.

She lamented how elected presidents will assume office and close all avenues to the extent that whatever the leader does can only be challenged at the next elections.

“There must be something that we can do when we can see that our leader is leading us astray.”

‘Completely collapsed’

It is unclear what Nana Konadu is calling for but she was clear on the fact that Ghana’s economy has collapsed.

She said going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a clear indication of that.

“So you don’t run to the IMF when there is nothing wrong with you. The economy has been collapsed. Completely collapsed through theft, through mismanagement and others.”

She said the NDP is ready to take up the reins of governance.

She added that the party looks good in the next elections especially given the reception it gets at gatherings.

The NDP was barred from contesting the last elections as a result of administrative errors during filing of presidential nominations, a situation the wife of Former President John Rawlings says was orchestrated.

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|tv3network.com|Ghana

Twitter: @kwame_amoh

The two were allegedly attacked and assaulted by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party, Bernard Antwi-Bosiako and his goons at Krofom last week.

A complaint was lodged with the police and Antwi-Bosiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi was subsequently arrested and detained overnight on Tuesday at the Kumasi Central Police Station.

Chairman Wontumi was charged with conspiracy to commit assault, and committing assault at a Magistrate Court in Kumasi on Wednesday.

He stormed the court with four lawyers including Kwabena Kokofu, Kwame Adom Appiah and Ohene Gyan. The court was also besieged by thousands of NPP supporters who had earlier camped at the Central Police Station demanding his release.

It has however emerged that the two gentlemen who were assaulted have instructed their lawyers to formally inform the Regional Police Command of their disinterest in the case and the decision to discontinue with it.

A letter addressed to the Regional Police Commander from Obeng-Manu Law Firm, signed by Shadrack Yeboah-Obeng as lawyer for Collins Amankwa and Felix Ibrahim discussed the intention.

“Our clients are the complainants in the above mentioned case against the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Bernard Antwi Bosiako @ Chairman Wontumi. Our clients have instructed us of their decision to pursue settlement and have accordingly instructed us to serve you notice of their said intention,” the letter said in part.

Story by Isaac Essel | tv3network.com | Ghana