The Electoral Commission (EC) says its meeting at the City Escape Hotel in Accra is a normal meeting of the commission with its directors.
“It is an in-house meeting of directors which we hold three times in a year as part of our operations,” it said.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic, a Deputy Chairperson of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, explained that the meeting could have taken place at the EC’s headquarters.
He said the EC chose to relocate the meeting to meet the social distancing directives currently in force.
Dr Asare said just as other institutions were working in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EC “is also working in preparation for the 2020 elections.”
He said the commission was not speaking to the issue of some members of the NDC coming to the hotel.
Police intervention
The timely intervention of the Accra Regional Police averted an unpleasant scene at the Airport branch of the City Escape Hotel last Saturday where some members of the NDC had assembled to disrupt a meeting of the Electoral EC.
Some national executive of the NDC and supporters of the party besieged the Airport branch of the hotel upon hearing that the EC had relocated the workshop to that venue.
It, however, turned out to be a meeting of the directors of the EC.
But the Accra Regional Police Operations Director, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr Kwesi Ofori, led a team of personnel to storm the hotel to avert any untoward incident.
The police later provided a safe passage for the officials of the EC who were at the lobby of the hotel.
Police
Speaking to journalists at the scene, Mr Ofori advised the NDC to resort to due process instead of taking the law into their own hands.
He said the NDC officials had reported the matter to the Airport Police, hence the need for the police to conduct their investigations and deal with the matter.
Apart from 20 officials of the EC that were seen at the lobby of the hotel, he said the police did not see any formal meeting going on.
Mr Ofori said he had asked the EC officials to go to the Airport Police to write a statement in response to the complaint filed against the EC.
NDC Responds
A Deputy General Secretary of NDC, Mr Peter Boamah Otokunor, accused the EC of deliberately flouting a court injunction barring it from holding a workshop to train its officers.
The workshop, he said, was contrary to a ban placed on all public gatherings, including conferences, workshops, funerals, festivals, political rallies, sporting events and religious activities by the President in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Otokunor said the NDC would meet on Monday, April 27, 2020, to consider options available to it, including citing the EC for contempt.
The plaintiff in the case, Mr Sam George, who also arrived at the scene, told journalists that the actions of the EC and the hotel management were a clear violation of the President’s order on the holding of mass gathering.
Source: Daily Graphic
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Look at this Angel of DEATH. It came out of mouth say NORMAL MEETING. ? You have committed yourself if you don't know. DAFT 487688
Using public funds to rent hotel for normal work is equally irresponsible.
The NPP should be alert and know that the NDC has not ban their vigilante groups. What Sam George did was a clear picture to show the NPP that the NDC vigilante groups still exist. This Sam George should have been arrested for breaking the protocols of social distance. Is he above the laws of the land? Zimbabwe government senior officer was arrested for breaking that protocol. Who is Sam George? Besides he was out of parliament, so what blocked the police to arrest him?
NDC IS DESPERATE AND CONFUSEDD. THEY RUN FROM THE COURT TO THE POLICE STATION TO THE MEDIA AND THEN TO THE CID. THEY HOPE TO JUSTIFY THEIR ACTIONS BY BEING THE FIRST TO MAKE A CASE AT THE COURT AND POLICE STATION. THEY HAVE BECOME CONFUSED IN THEIR DESPERATION AND ACT WITH EVIL INTENT WITHOUT THINKING RIGHT. IT IS REPORTED THAT THE NDC OBTAINED AN INJUNCTION TO STOP EC WORKSHOP AT PRAMPRAM. EC DID NOT CARRY OUT THE WORKSHOP AT PRAMPRAM. EC DECIDED TO HAVE A MEETING AT IN EAST LAGON. SAM GEORGE, PETER OTUKUNOR AND GODWIN GUNN LED THUGS TO STOP THE EC MEETING. THE 1ST QUESTION TO ASK IS THAT DID THE NDC ASK THE COURT TO STOP EC WORKSHOP AT PRAMPAM, FOR WHATEVER REASONS, AND ANY ACTIVITY OF EC THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. THE 2ND IS THAT DID THE COURT PUT INJUNCTION ON EC WORKSHOP AT PRAMPRAM AND ANY OTHER ACTIVITY OF EC THROUGHOUT THE NATION. 3RD GRANTED WITHOUT ADMITTING, IF EC HAD VIOLATED THE COURT ORDER, DID NDC HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE COMPLIANCE TO A COURT ODER? SADLY OTUKONOR CLAIMED THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO TAKE THE LAWS INTO THEIR HANDS WHEN THE LAWS OF GHANA WERE NOT RESPECTED BY STATE INSTITUTIONS, INCLUDING THE POLICE. STRANGELY, THEY KEEP RUNNING TO POLICE STATION AND CID WITHOUT BEING APPREHENDED. WITHOUT GOING INTO THE MERIT OF THE CASE, THE PUBLIC IS INTERESTED TO KNOW IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE, WHEN WAS THE CASE FILED; WHEN WAS THE INJUNCTION ISSUE?. HOW AND WHEN WAS THE EC SERVED. AND THEN, UPON WHAT GROUNDS COULD A STATE INSTITUTION BE STOP FROM CARRYING OUT ITS CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED FUNCTIONS. IT LOOKS LIKE NDC HAVE BECOME UNTOUCHABLE. THEY HAVE THE LICENSE TO ASSAULT AND INSULT STATE INSTITUTIONS WITHOUT BEING REPRIMANDED. THEY RUN TO COURT TO REPORT VIOLATION OF LAW, YET THEY CANNOT WAIT FOR THE COURT JUDGEMENT AND TAKE THE LAW INTO THEIR HANDS TO VIOLATE IT THEMSELVES. THEY INSULT THE POLICE FOR NOT RESPECTING THE LAW, YET THEY RUN TO THE POLICE TO MAKE UNLAWFUL CLAIMS. IF IT HAD NOT BEEN GHANA SAM GEORGE, OTUKONOR, GODWIN GUNN ALL THEIR GANGSTERSSS WOULD HAVE BEEN BEHIND BARS BY NOW. WE MUST STOP THIS HOOLIGANISM.
Sometimes I wonder, you use the court for the injunction, why mobilise people to disrupt the meeting if in your opinion the EC is in contemp? Why dont you go back to the court but resort to violence?
This lady should be careful and seek general consensus, else if shiiiit breaks out. she would the first person people will attack. a word to a wise person is enough
The more I read or hear NDC blockheads on any issue the more it confirms to me that they really do not read and the few who read don't understand what they read. Sam George only sought injunction to move the EC meeting from his constituency which the EC complied and moved to a different location outside his jurisdiction per the court order. How on earth should an MP mobilize thugs to disrupt a meeting which does not in any way flout any of our laws? NDC read oooooo read.
Why is NDC afraid of new Register? This is strange. Sam George cannot mobilise people to enforce the laws of Ghana. Police have that exclusive right. This type of mancho behaviour led to him being slapped. He deserved another big slaps
THIS SAM GEORGE GUY THINKS HE CAN HIDE BEING AN MP TO MISBEHAVE. YOU GO AND ORGANIZE PEOPLE TO GO AND MISBEHAVE. IS THE SAME THING HE WENT TO AYAWASO-WEST TO AND WAS SLAPPED ON PROVOCATION. HE THINKS IT IS ONLY HIS PARTY PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE RIGHT TO THE AIR WE BREATH. ALL OTHERS MUST SHELF THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT EXISTENCE AND DEPEND ON THEIRS.
***barred word*** foo ls , the injunction was issued to prevent the meeting in a hotel at Prampram not in Accra. Daawa konkos.