Tension mounts at Koforidua Poly ...over election of SRC President

Tension is gradually building up at the Koforidua Polytechnic following reports of election irregularities that characterised this year's Student Representative Council (SRC) presidential election.

According to The Chronicle information, this year's SRC presidential elections, which took place last week Wednesday, like any other election, should have started at 7:00 a.m. and closed at 5:00 p.m., but in this particular case, it started an hour late, due to certain challenges.

Even though the elections started an hour late, the students peacefully went to the polls to cast their votes until about 4:30 p.m., when one of the students was caught voting more than once for one of the candidates.

This, according to report, generated misunderstanding and violence among supporters of the other candidates, which held up the elections for several minutes. 

But for the timely invention of personnel from the Koforidua police command, to calm down nerves of the students, the election would have turned bloody and chaotic.

Some of the students have called for the disqualification of the candidates whose supporters were involved in the rigging, and also the entire result.

They explained that, article 19 sub-sections 6 of the SRC Constitution stipulates that “where irregularities are detected at a polling station during voting, the results shall be cancelled and new elections shall be conducted.”

The agitated students further argued that, article 18 sub-section 5 also states that the Electoral Commission (EC) shall have the powers to withdraw any candidate found guilty of election malpractices.

This, they explained, if not done, would lead to an unprecedented demonstration to drum home their grievances and displeasure, since the election was not conducted in a free, fair and transparent environment.

The election was keenly contested by Mr. James Nii Aryee Tawiah and Eugene Abrokwah, both from the department of Accountancy, Vava Agboko Kosi, Purchasing and Supply, and Dela Dustan Abosti, Marketing.

Meanwhile the Dean of Students, Mr. Benjamin Opoku Acheampong, has appealed to the students to exercise restraint, since the school would investigate the incident and bring anybody or group of individuals involved to book.