NDC warns Akufo-Addo over military deployment for tomorrow’s elections

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a strong warning to President Nana Akufo-Addo to cease the deployment of military personnel ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.

With less than 12 hours until the polls open, the NDC, in a statement, accused the President of deploying armed military forces to local communities nationwide in “armoured vehicles, machine guns and sniper weapons.”

According to the NDC, the deployment is intended to intimidate voters and is “unconstitutional, unlawful and an attempt to disenfranchise citizens.

These accusations come after the Ghana Armed Forces in a statement dated Thursday December 6, reiterated that no military personnel would be stationed at polling centres on election day unless specifically requested by the Ghana Police Service.

In a statement signed by the party’s General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, the NDC declared:

The NDC wishes to state categorically that this unbridled militarisation of the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections is unconstitutional and unlawful and only serves to intimidate the electorate and their families in their otherwise peaceful communities. The NDC sees this as an attempt to subvert the will of the Ghanaian people.

An election is not a war. This is a maintenance of law and order mission meant for the law enforcement agencies, not a war or restoration of law and order mission that would be meant for the military.

The opposition party has called on President Akufo-Addo to withdraw military personnel from local communities, stating:

The NDC, as a stakeholder in the elections of tomorrow, wishes to reiterate its objection to the ongoing deployment of the military in local communities and calls on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, to order the immediate withdrawal of the military from all local communities.

The NDC also reaffirmed its commitment to peace and the protection of Ghana’s democracy before, during, and after the elections.

This statement follows an earlier claim by the NDC’s National Organiser, Joseph Yamin, at a press conference in Kumasi. He alleged that approximately 200 “so-called military officers” had been deployed to the Ashanti Region to intimidate voters.

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