The Deputy National Organiser of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Joshua Amidu Akamba has rejected calls by the opposition New Patriotic Party on the government to ensure that Ghanaians living abroad vote in the 2012 general elections. The NPP’s call followed a promise by President Mills and a confirmation from Chairman of the Electoral Commission Dr Afari Gyan that prisoners will vote in the 2012 elections. Though the NPP is yet to come out with its position on that development, the party’s Deputy Communications Director, Sammy Awuku, told Joy News on Wednesday that the president’s posture is nothing but “mere populism that has absolutely no correlation with the issues on the ground”. He suspects that President Mills is asking the EC to ensure that prisoners exercise their franchise, a right guaranteed by law, to ostensibly court sympathy from prisoners and win their votes. “This comes days after the government increased the feeding grant given to prisoners, then, less than a week, the president coming out to make a declaration. It is the sequence of events that is what gives some people the impression that His Excellency and his government may have some ulterior motive.” He further stated it is the desire of every Ghanaian that prisoners are allowed to vote because it is their right “but the President was incorrect when he said [it was] their God-given right” and opined, “the right to vote is not a religious right, it is a constitutional right”. It is on that basis that Sammy Awuku is making a case and challenging the government to implement the ROPAL as well for the 2012 elections. “Let’s us also not forget our brothers and sisters who continue to send down money to their loved ones and family members in the midst of this economic crisis in the country. Let’s not forget them and also grant them their conditionally mandated voting right.” However, Joshua Amidu Akamba refuted the populism tag on the president, saying President Mills cannot be faulted for respecting the court’s decision. “If you look at this one, it was a Supreme Court decision,” he emphasized, adding that it also goes to fulfill the NDC’s “promise to raise the standard of Ghanaian institutions”. He told Joy News’ Dzifa Bampoh: “We are not the kind of party or Professor Mills [administration] is not the government that believes that when you go to the Supreme Court and they say re-instate this person, we refuse to reinstate that person and decide to do what we want.” Amidu Akamba, accused the NPP of being hypocritical on the issue of ROPAL. He said ROPAL was passed when the NPP was in government and questioned “why didn’t they implement it? They should have implemented it; who stopped them? Did anybody go to the Supreme Court to decide that they shouldn’t pass ROPAL into law and asked people to vote?”