General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress has pooh-poohed the opposition New Patriotic Party’s claim that the current voters register is bloated with foreigners and should be replaced.

He says he is baffled that the party which in 2007 was pushing for a law to allow Ghanaians living abroad to vote will today seek to disenfranchise some 76,000 voters because it believes they are foreigners. 

The NPP has been ratcheting up pressure on the Electoral Commission to compile a new voters’ register.

With copies of the Togolese voters’ register and that of Ghana, the NPP says it used biometric facial recognition technology and found potential matches of 76,000 names on both registers.

These voters used the same names, have the same facial and other features on the voters’ registers of both countries, the party is claiming.

But according to the NDC, they are Ghanaians living in Togo who return to vote on election day.

Making historical references, Asiedu Nketia argued that during the revolutionary days of the early '80s, some two million Ghanaians returned home after being forced out of Nigeria.

“So if 76,000 people register [from Togo], is it not too small?” Asiedu Nketia told a cheering crowd during the launch of the NDC biometric registration cards in Wa on Monday.

The popular politician said that just as the NPP develops a following in European countries, the NDC develops a following in West Africa.

“When they were busily opening branches in Germany, I was busy opening branches in Togo and Ivory Coast”, he said.

He urged the party supporters to get into the neighboring countries, convince them to come and register anytime the EC opens registration to enable them take part in the general election.

The General Secretary wants the NPP to focus on campaigning. "Elephants don’t look backwards but rather forward," he said.

Asiedu Nketia also dismissed calls for the borders to be closed during elections.

“Why don’t we close the airports?” he wondered insisting “Ghanaians in London are not better than Ghanaians in Burkina Faso”.