There Was No Rigging Or Over-Voting In Ashanti Region � Yamoah Ponkoh

A former Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ejisu-Juaben Municipality in the Ashanti region, Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh has debunked claims by his party and the spokesperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Kofi Dzakpasu that there were incidents of rigging and over-voting in the Ashanti Region during Wednesday's polls.

EC spokesperson, Kofi Dzakpasu prior to the declaration of the final results of the polls claimed that they had received reports of over-voting in certain polling stations.

“It has come to the attention of the Commission that several possible instances of over voting have occurred at a number of polling stations. As a result of this, the Electoral Commission has decided to review all results from the collation centres and verify them against the physical pink sheets from the polling stations,” Kofi Dzakpasu said.

It was subsequently repeated by the deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho who further called for proper audit of election results from the Ashanti Region.

“It has come to the fore that in a lot of polling stations in the Ashanti Region, there was over-voting, and the law says if there is over-voting in any polling station, it should be annulled,” he said

These claims were earlier disputed by the Ashanti Regional chair of the commission who claimed nothing of that sort existed.

The NDC subsequently used that as a trump card before the concession speech of President John Mahama.

But Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh speaking on Okay FM Monday said no over-voting or rigging happened in the region.

“There was totally no rigging or over voting. They weren’t ready for power. If Julius Debrah involved himself in the Ashanti region campaign it would not have ended like this. The national campaign team was not strong” he indicated.

He further said that he has no sympathies for NDC MP’s who lost their seats during last Wednesday’s elections.

The firebrand politician said the party undertook various steps prior to the polls which contributed to their loss.

These steps, he said did not mostly favour the party and hence amounted to giving political power to their opponent, NPP on a silver platter.

“NPP should thank NDC for the win. We are our own enemies. NPP should not jubilate and take the credit because we gave them the power in a simple way. I predicted we will win by 53% and that switched to the side of the NPP,” he said.

He continued that: “I don’t have sympathy for the NDC MPs who lost. They didn’t help the president because of their arrogance. If they (NDC MPs) have lost their seats, they should go and sleep. I’m only saddened Baba Jamal lost his seat,” he added.

The former MCE further noted that any effort to shift the blame on rigging and over voting should be debunked totally.

This notwithstanding he noted that in opposition one has to survive and therefore will be ready to put things aside and be right regardless to wrestle power from the NPP.