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Ashanti Regional Secretary of the largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwame Zu has asserted that there is a sustained effort on the side of the Electoral Commission (EC) to thwart people who are eligible to register in the Ashanti Region.

According to him, the Electoral Commission (EC) has taken a very stubborn posture to the extent that the leadership of the Electoral Commission (EC) does not want to accept the views and advice of stakeholders in the electoral process.

“There is a sustained effort to thwart people who are eligible to register and we don’t understand the motive of the EC. The EC also, I don’t know; I have been part of the regional executive structure for quite a long time. This time around I don’t know what is happening, when you talk the EC don’t listen; when you advice them, they don’t accept it. They have taken a very stubborn posture; they want to do what they feel like doing,” he chided.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Kwame Zu explained to host Kwame Nkrumah Tikese that the NDC in the Ashanti Region is expecting the Electoral Commission (EC) to maintain the initial arrangement which was used for the last limited registration exercise.

He reiterated that the last limited registration exercise was “done throughout the electoral areas and not the district offices of EC. This is all we are asking for and not whether the Ashanti Region is NPP’s strongholds or the NDC’s strongholds”.

“ . . when you look at the list, they have allocated 5 days to someone’s stronghold but with someone's stronghold, they have allocated 2 days for the limited registration and we don’t understand,” he asserted.

He indicated that there are a lot of issues the NDC in the Ashanti Region is not comfortable with but the leadership of the party in the region have decided not to talk about them in public but write them as a petition to the EC which will be presented on Monday June 3, 2019.

Citing Sekyere Afram Plains as a case study, Kwame Zu indicated that a suburb called Mumuni, which is predominantly settlers, qualifies for the difficult areas which EC has declared for the offline registration exercise but the list given them excludes Mumuni as part of the difficult areas.

“Our petition is very simple, if they feel that there are areas they have identified to be difficult, we should sit down with them as a political party; we are key actors and so we should discuss it and ascertain whether where the EC claims to be difficult are indeed difficult areas . . .” he mentioned.