The National Democratic Congress is considering whether to boycott the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election scheduled for Thursday or seek a court order to stop the Electoral Commission to from holding it.
The decision, which is expected to be taken by the National Executive Committee today, followed some alleged irregularities in the voters’ register that has been approved by the EC for the conduct of the election.
According to the NDC legal team, the figure in the register provided the party by the EC is different from what has been approved for by-election.
Four candidates are contesting the seat which became vacant following the death of Emmanuel Agyarko Kyereematen in November 2018.
They are Delali Kwasi Brempong of the NDC, William Kofi Dowokpor of the Progressive People’s Party, Clement Boadi of the Liberal Party of Ghana and Lydia Seyram Alhassan of the NPPP
Abraham Amaliba, a member of the legal team said on [email protected] on TV3 Tuesday that the voters’ register for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency which the EC supplied them on December 28, 2018, does not have the same population as what the EC has released to be used for the election.
He said the voter population per the register they received from the EC stood at 87,580.
“Then as the printing of ballots started, we were invited to observe the process. We got there to realise that the register accompanying the ballot papers to the various polling stations, that register had a voter population of 88,745. There is an addition of 1, 0165,” he claimed.
Upon realising the discrepancy, he said they officially wrote to the EC to seek explanation on the matter but the EC never minded them.
Also, he said the party’s director of elections personally went to the EC on the same matter but then again the EC did not give him audience.
In view of this, he said “We requested for some registers; three of them – the transfer voters’ list, the special voters’ list, and the proxy voters’ list [as] our right [but] the EC will not budge”.
Mr. Amaliba however revealed it was until Tuesday evening the EC reached out to the party’s director of elections “and accepted the discrepancy in the two registers”.
Asked whether they were satisfied with the admission by the EC, he said that will be a decision of the NEC, which he said will meet on Wednesday.
“They just got to us [Tuesday evening], we will be with the matter tomorrow [Wednesday] and if we are satisfied we will announce to the people of this country” he said.
“We could go to court and place an injunction and it is also possible we could boycott the election depending on what the National Executive Committee will say,” he stated.
For Mr Amaliba and the NDC, “the Jean Mensa led EC is clandestinely engaged in acts that suggest that they want to rig the election in favour of the NPP. We are of the view that the EC is clandestinely trying to rig this election.
He said the NDC will not allow the EC to tie their hands and “put us in the boxing ring, we won’t do that, we won’t allow that”.
Source: 3news.com
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