Speaking to SaharaReporters a protester, Kwame Agyemang Budu, said he has received several calls from Ghana and the United Kingdom asking him to call off the protest or reconsider ever going back to his home country Ghana.
Ghanaian activists told a SaharaReporters correspondent in New York City that they have been receiving threat-laden phone calls from agents associated with the Ghana government warning them of consequences if they carry out a massive Anti-Mahama protest at the United Nations on Wednesday.
Activists want to draw international attention to the New Patriotic Party’s demands for a new electoral register in Ghana.
Speaking to SaharaReporters a protester, Kwame Agyemang Budu, said he has received several calls from Ghana and the United Kingdom asking him to call off the protest or reconsider ever going back to his home country Ghana.
“The caller said it is not my business to determine what the [Electoral Commission] does with their decision on our demands for a new electoral register. We then argued for some time,” Mr. Budu told SaharaReporters.
A group of Ghanaians identifying as Concerned Ghanaians Living in the USA, under the auspices of the Let My Vote Count Alliance, are organizing the protest for Wednesday September 30th in New York City to coincide with Ghana President John Mahama’s visit to the United Nations General Assembly.
Spokespersons for the group say they are protesting against the government and the Electoral Commission’s disregard for calls by Ghana’s major opposition party, the New Patriotic Party, for a new voters register before next year’s general election.
They say they are also protesting police brutality, especially in the face of how the police handled a group of protesters during a recent incident in Ghana.
The police abuses occurred a couple of weeks ago during the Let My Vote Count Alliance organized a peaceful protest. The protest however turned violent when organizers had disagreements with the police of the approved route. Police say they were trying to divert to the offices of the Electoral Commission and this prompted a violent confrontation in which tear gas was used.
Kwame Agyemang Budu says the protest at the UN will continue as planned. He said the group aims to get the attention of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to present their grievances after failing to get the Mahama government to act.
“We will be at the UN on 47th Street from morning and will seek to get audience with the Secretary General” he told our reporter.