Journalists were excluded from the 2012 special voting, but today they are joining members of the security agencies, officials of the Electoral Commission and election observers to vote in the 2016 special voting.
Some of the security officers have, however, accused the EC and their bosses of deliberately working to disenfranchise them “because they know we are happy with the system and so many of us are voting for change.”
According to a worried Immigration Officer who called the Daily Statesman yesterday, many of the security officers, including the police and military, cannot take part in today’s special voting because try as they did they could not get their names onto the special voters’ register.
“They just brought us a message today (yesterday) that those of us affected should go to the constituencies where we registered to vote. But the message came at time it was impossible for us to go and vote. For instance, I am at a village in the Brong-Afafo and I am expected to go to the Volta Region to vote. Now, I can’t even get a vehicle where I am. I see the whole thing as a deliberate plan not to allow us to vote for the change we are all yearning for,” the officer lamented.
He added: “We submitted our names long, long time ago, and I don’t understand why we should be treated this way. And when you look at the whole thing, you realize that many of us who are affected bear names that belong to the same ethnic group, which appears to give indication of where are votes will go. This is very bad, and we are very worried.”