Akosombo Dam Spillage: Don’t disenfranchise affected residents in 2024 elections – Retired judge

Former Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Kwaku Gyan, has expressed deep-seated concerns about the potential impact of the recent Akosombo Dam spillage on the 2024 general elections. At a public lecture titled “Protecting Our Democracy: The Role of the Judiciary,” Justice Kwaku Gyan explained that the “humanitarian tragedy” and “self-inflicted disaster” has led to the destruction of the properties of affected residents. He stressed that important identification documents such as the Ghana Card and the Voter ID, needed to exercise one’s franchise, have thus been lost amidst the dam spillage. Justice Kwaku Gyan indicated that the government and other relevant bodies are, however, recklessly downplaying the effect of the disaster, which has since disrupted normal activities in the affected communities. He is thus urging relevant authorities to take necessary steps not to disenfranchise persons in the Volta Region and other communities affected by the Akosombo Dam spillage, as it is a constitutional right. “Many human settlements in the catchment areas have completely been wiped off the map. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians escaping the rampaging floods left behind practically all their human possessions. Relevant to the forthcoming 2024 elections are two most critical items and possessions of the people fleeing from the flood waters. They are the Almighty Ghana Card and the Voter ID card. Thus, apart from the inextensible loss of their creature comforts, the victims of this deluge in the Volta region in particular as well as those in other parts of the country manifestly risk the cruel denial their constitutional right to vote in the 2024 elections by reason of the loss or destruction through the Volta River floods of their national ID and Voter ID cards and unless something urgent and drastic done to avert this eventuality. “We all know that the universal adult suffrage and hence the franchise to vote by those qualified to vote is a constitutional imperative. Every reasonable and necessary step and action ought to be devised to avoid and prevent any mass disenfranchisement of the people of the Volta Region as well as those in all other parts of the country affected and afflicted by this man-made disaster,” Justice Kwaku Gyan posited. Source: citinewsroom