Former chairman of the UK/Ireland Chapter of the National Democratic Congress, Alhaji Alhassan Mbalba, has claimed that the reduction in the number of votes for the New Patriotic Party in the Ashanti Region is a result of a bloated register.

According to him on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning show on the aftermath of the just-ended 2024 election, he indicated that the Electoral Commission’s voter register is over-bloated, which has caused the NPP’s loss in the Ashanti Region.

“I believe the current voter register is overbloated. Demographically, how can you have a country of 33 million roughly, and over 50% of the population is within the voting age? It’s difficult because we have a growing population, not an aging population where the birth rate is low like in most advanced countries. I’m not a population expert but with the little geography and social studies I studied, I think there’s something wrong with the register. The register is a suspect. So, what I think accounted mainly for the NPP’s drops in the Ashanti Region has to do with the over-bloated register in that region,” he explained to Roselyn Felli.

Alhaji Mbalba is therefore pleading with government stakeholders to collectively pressure the EC chairperson Jane Mensah to ensure the restructuring of the register to avoid such occurrences in the future.

Apart from the bloating register, he also considered apathy and economic hardship as some major reasons behind the NPP’s failure.

“Are the people from the Ashanti Region, which is the second largest city in Ghana, not living in this country? So, the economic hardship was hitting them hard.”
He urged the John-led administration not to disappoint Ghanaians’ trust in the party for casting their ballots in favor with the party.

Prior to the 2024 polls, some political enthusiasts raised concerns about the voter register being bloated, but the EC, in defense, emphasized that everything was accurate. This has led many Ghanaians to attribute the NPP's loss of votes in the Ashanti Region to that, as it is the party's stronghold.