The demonstration which was staged by Members of the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) Wednesday to pressurise the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register turned chaotic.
The confusion started near the Cathedral Junction at Adabraka when the demonstrators veered off the agreed route to the Hearts Park and took the road leading to the EC office to present their petition.
The police immediately blocked the road leading to the area, and when the demonstrators insisted, they fired tear gas and used water canons to disperse them.
The demonstrators were made up of members of LMVCA, Movement for Change (MFC) and Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG).
To contain the huge crowd, the police called for reinforcement. They positioned armoured vehicles on the road to control any form of movement.
That made it more difficult for the demonstrators to have their way through.
The police had also cordoned off the headquarters of the EC, near the Ridge Roundabout. Barricades were mounted at all the roads leading to the EC.
Arrest
Drama unfolded when the police arrested about 20 of the demonstrators, including a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko. Some of the demonstrators claimed that they were whipped and injured by the police.
In a statement issued by LMVCA signed by Mr David Asante, it said “nothing and absolutely nothing warranted such excessive use of force as applied by the police to the peaceful protest march of the armless members of LMVCA, MFC, AFAG and several other trade groups and associations”.
It said the only crime of these Ghanaians perhaps was that “we want the Electoral Commission to discard the 2012 biometric voters register and compile a fresh credible one for the 2016 elections”.
Reacting, however, Superintendent Cephas Arthur of the Police Public Affairs Directorate said the EC was a “no go” area as far as picketing was concerned.
Demonstration
The demonstration, which started around 11:a.m. at the Obra Spot at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, lasted for about one hour 30 minutes before the confusion broke out.
The demonstrators, most of whom wore white with red clothes around their heads and hands, sang and danced to brass band music through some principal streets of Accra.
Some demonstrators on motorbikes and bicycles were in the front role followed by bearers of a huge banner with the inscription:”New Voters Register Now”.
The banner had the inscription of the national flag and the NPP flag.
The demonstrators held placards with inscriptions demanding the compilation of a new voters register.
Some of the placards read: “No More ECOWAS Register”; “No Audit – Just Scrap it”; “Change our Voters Register Now”; “No ‘Awam’ Register”; and “The Cost could be Higher, If…”
One of the demonstrators held a mat and a pillow to signify her readiness to picket at the EC office for as long as possible.
– Source: graphic.com.gh
