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Opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the Electoral Commission EC) and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of frustrating persons wishing to register in the ongoing limited voter registration, particularly in their stronghold regions.

According to the NPP, the two appear to have conspired to prevent and intimidate people in the Ashanti and Eastern regions from registering.

Addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, said that his party will resist any form of intimidation in the ongoing exercise.

The EC last week Thursday began the exercise to register its new voters.

There have been series of violent activities recorded in several registration centres in the country but the EC has called for calm.

John Boadu at the news conference recounted some incidents they believe were orchestrated by the NDC in a bid to disenfranchise persons in their strongholds.

The use of thugs, “a very unfortunate development in the ongoing registration exercise, is the unleashing of thugs and macho men to cause violence and intimidate potential registrants in some of our strongholds.”

…This appears to be a carefully tailored strategy by the NDC to reduce the number of voters in our strongholds and these obvious criminal acts are being perpetrated in some cases with the involvement of government officials including regional ministers and DCEs,” he alleged.

The NPP acting general secretary said in one of the registration centres in the Asokwa constituency in the Ashanti region, “NDC hired macho men on motorbikes who wielded machetes and scattered the EC registration machines.”