Yesterday Former President John Dramani Mahama Joined the likes of You, Dr. Ekow Spio Garbrah, Sly, Prof Alabi and others to register as true party members of the National Democratic Congress.
[ads1]The registration which started early this month has seen low patronage in its first months.
There have been lots of developments from the polling stations which resulted in the low patronage of the registration exercise by committed members of the party.
From most of the polling stations in the rural areas all over the country the complains have been the cost of the passport picture and the one cedi.
They said they ever paid one cedi for party card which never came which is true in most cases.
We used Aboroso, a village in Dormaa East constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region for a case study.
Aboroso is a farming community which has one of the worse road networks in Ghana.
People living there are predominantly peasant farmers who live from hand to mouth.
These are people who find it difficult to feed their families once a day because of how the senior most poverty has taken control of their lives.
More than 95% of the people in Aboroso are committed NDC faithful due to the hard work of the constituency executives in Dormaa East.
In Aboroso community they see 1cedi as 1,000cedis. Am told it can take five months and a whole family wouldn’t have 1cedis to be their own. A fact that will be difficult to believe by most of our big men.
Election history of our country tell us that NDC has it’s strong holds in the rural areas in most constituencies which is a fact. And this is the kind of life our people live.
We tried to estimate the registration cost for the people of Aboroso per an individual and it will cost one person 25.00Ghana cedis to get registered as a party member.
Because the person has to come to Wamfie, the district capital via car which will cost him 16.00, the passport picture 8.00 and the registration fee 1.00.
And this 25cedis is a huge money which someone in Aboroso wouldn’t spend on party registration a similar case all over hence the low turn out in most of our polling stations in the rural areas.
The case of the people of Aboroso is similar to most of the polling stations across Ghana which I think we have to take a second look at.
I wasn’t much surprised to see the Former President’s polling station also with a low turn out after a month of the registration because the story is same everywhere.
We still have one month ahead of us and we need to do more to encourage others to register.
Some of us can volunteer and adopt polling stations and help them out for a smooth a successful registration of committed members.
As a Director of Elections in my constituency, I will suggest in our next exercises we should try and get ourselves prepared well to take the cost of the pictures which has been a major headache for lots of people.
Some people may have divergent views about the amount involved which they might say it’s just a peanut but it is the reality on the ground and it is a direct voice from the grassroots I have echoed.
I also encourage all of us to get involved do the little we can to make the registration exercise a success.
May God continue to bless us and keep us united for the battle ahead of us.
PossibleTOGETHER
Efo Worlanyo TSEKPO.