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Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has condemned the violent acts at some registration centres in the country.

On Monday, July 20, 2020, the Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Hawa Koomson had violent clash with some unidentified people after she went to a voter registration centre in the Awutu Senya East constituency.

She explained that she went to the registration centre following a tip-off that some unknown people had been bused to the constituency to participate in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

She sensed danger and so picked up a gun to the centre where she fired warning shots.

The Minister claimed she acted out of self-defence.

"I realised the lives of my people were in danger. So I wanted to scare the people. I fired the warning shots. I didn’t direct it at anybody," she said on Adom News.

Kwesi Pratt's take on registration violence

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Kwesi Pratt questioned why people would go to the registration centres armed with offensive weapons.

To him, there cannot be any justificaton for whatever reason behind such actions.

"We're just going to write our names to express our minds when the time for the elections is due. Simple! Should this result in pulling knives? Must this lead people to hide pepper in their pockets to the registration centres? What's the purpose for the pepper? Are you going to eat kenkey with it or what? Just going to register your name and you have pepper to spray into people's eyes, others with machetes to hack people and the worse of all is those who pull guns; are you going for hunting?" he fumed.

According to him, he is "embarrassed whenever I hear or see things like what's happening . . . Terrible; so embarrassing!''

"When you do all this for power, what will you use it for? When you kill someone, sprays pepper into people's eyes and do all these things, and you're given the power, what unique thing can you really do?" he further asked.



EC Condemns Registration Violence

The electoral management body has also condemned the violent clashes at the registration centers across the nation.

The Electoral Commission issued a statement on Monday, July 20, 2020 stating ''the Commission condemns such acts during a civil exercise like the Registration of Voters and calls on security agencies to investigate the issue as a matter of urgency to bring the perpetrators to book. These acts constitute a breach of the Vigilante and Related Offenses Act, 2019 Act 999. The Act seeks to disband violent activities of Political Parties and makes political vigilantism an offence punishable by a prison term''.

It also reminded the public, particularly political party agents, that ''any person who wishes to challenge an Applicant on the basis of ineligibility must fill a Challenge Form, which will then be presented to the District Registration Review Committee for a ruling on the matter. Political Party agents are therefore cautioned against the use of violence to challenge a person’s eligibility''.