Akwatia Polls In Danger

Baba Jamal and Dr Kofi Asare

AN INDEPENDENT parliamentary candidate who had 64 votes in all the 89 polling stations in the Akwatia constituency has threatened to disrupt the forthcoming extended elections at Akwatia, should the Electoral Commission(EC) go ahead to conduct the elections at only six polling stations as widely expected.

Samuel Abrokwah, seen as an appendage of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), told a press conference at Koforidua on Friday that the EC intends to steal the elections for the opposition New Patriotic Party's candidate, Dr. Kofi Asare, because several petitions filed by him and two other aggrieved candidates, namely Baba Jamal of NDC and Basil Ahiable, fell on deaf ears after they had provided concrete evidence that apart from Akwatia, the elections were massively rigged at Akyem Wenchi, the hometown of the NPP candidate.

According to Mr. Abrokwah, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Eastern regional propaganda secretary of NDC, Joshua Atta Mensah, there was over 100 percent voter attendance at Wenchi which meant that “there was some fishy deal at Wenchi” to record such an “outrageous” turn-out.

He said all four polling stations at Wenchi, namely Presby JHS, Palace Square 'A', Palace Square 'B' and a temporary booth, all recorded over 100% voter turn-out.

He alleged that at the Presby JHS polling station, while the total number of voters was supposed to be 1,231, turn-out was 1,232,  adding that Palace 'B' polling station had 730 voters but 742 people eventually came to vote.

“If NPP used their incumbency to misbehave at Wenchi and rigged the election, it means they are telling the NDC which is in power today to use its incumbency to rig the six polling stations by using brute force,” he pointed out.

He added that as an independent candidate, he will be prepared to support any candidate who will rig or disrupt the elections scheduled for August 18 since that is the only means the EC would accept elections.

This assertion by the independent candidate goes to corroborate DAILY GUIDE's investigations at Akwatia last week which revealed that there is bound to be trouble or chaos to be instigated by any side which believed does not have a chance if the elections are to be conducted at the six polling stations. It would be recalled that the NDC candidate, Baba Jamal, and two independent candidates, Samuel Abrokwah and Basil Ahiable, took the EC to court over its decision to conduct a re-run in only six polling stations and not all the 89 polling stations, but the Supreme court eventually ruled on July 15 that the EC had the mandate to conduct elections in polling stations it deemed appropriate due to violence.

From Thomas Fosu Jnr, Koforidua