<<Print>>The Municipal Chief Executive for Awutu Senya East in the Central Region, Michael Essuman Mensah, has alleged that the gunshots that marred Saturday’s limited voter registration exercise at Akweley, a suburb of Kasoa, were fired by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Constituency Chairman, Ofosu Agyare.
Over the weekend, there were reports of gunshots at the Akweley registration centre which disrupted the exercise.According to the MCE, the NDC had intentions of registering foreign nationals, but were resisted, resulting in the firing of the gunshots.
The MCE explained that his intervention saved an EC official from being attacked.“We began the limited registration on Monday. We were here when the NDC constituency chairman came around and pointed guns at 18-year-olds as a way of intimidating them. We went to meet firing gunshots to intimidate those registering. Akweley is a known NPP stronghold; we are not going to allow that. Their former secretary was also firing guns,” he said.
Attempts to reach the NDC Chairman for his response has been unsuccessful. The exercise, which began across the country at the EC’s district offices and in over 1,000 additional centres has largely been peaceful, except for some instances of network challenges.
A few days ago, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of deliberately frustrating people from registering in some parts of the region in the exercise.
The NPP in the Ashanti Region said some NDC agents deliberately delayed the registration process by raising needless disagreements. Three suspects were detained at the Adabraka Police in Accra for the illegal possession and filling of guarantee forms for prospective voters in the ongoing limited voter registration exercise on Saturday.
Reports say the suspects were caught signing the guarantee forms which are solely filled by EC officials for applicants who do not have the required identification cards to register on their own.
An eyewitness narrated the incident to Citi News, saying “There were signing guarantor forms and they were thumbprinting for people and the forms they had were bulky so I raised alarm.”