NPP Polling Station Elections Lead To Clashes In Wa

The ongoing Polling Station Executive elections of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) is gaining notoriety for clashes as aspirants, or groups loyal to them, turn against their opponents.

On Saturday, the residence of the Wa Municipal Chief Executive, Issahaku Tahiru Moomen, was vandalised by persons believed to be loyal to NPP’s Wa Municipal Chairman, Ali Kamara.

They reportedly attacked a second house belonging to Mr Moomen, but there the timely intervention of security personnel quelled further damage.

Joy News Upper West Correspondent, Rafik Salam, reports that police fired shots to disperse the agitated group.

Reports indicate that Mr Moomen is backing an opponent of Mr Kamara for the polling station executive slot, a situation that has intensified an already bitter feud between Mr Moomen and Mr Kamara.

Mr Moomen's house was allegedly attacked by persons loyal to Mr Kamara.

Another version of the cause of the confusion is that Ali Kamara is trying to manipulate the outcome of the elections to favour him, but his arch-enemy, Mr Moomen, has sworn to not allow that to happen.

Police are yet to confirm if Mr Kamara masterminded the attack on Mr Moomen's residence but eye-witnesses say they identified persons loyal the NPP Municipal Chairman.

The Polling Station Executive elections were scheduled to take place on January 17-21, 2018 across the country, but delays have meant some constituencies are still voting.

Rafik Salam also reports that a similar clash occurred on Friday during another polling station election in the Wa Municipality.

Chaos in the Eastern Region
In the Eastern Region, the election process has not been spared the confusion.

MPs have been accused of hijacking the nomination forms under the pretext that it has run short but they will secretly hand out the forms only to their cronies.

The situation has triggered protests and agitations creating misunderstanding across the Eastern Region, reports indicate.

Recently, a group of NPP supporters embarked on a protest march at the New Juaben South Constituency office against the constituency executives for allegedly keeping the forms in their homes releasing to their favourites aspirants only.

Furthermore, new entrants vying for polling station executive positions at Akyem Maase in Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern Region also protested and registered their displeasure over the alleged deliberate attempt of the party executives circumventing rules governing the election by issuing nomination forms to only their favourites to contest the upcoming polling station executive elections.

In Suhum, a group of disgruntled supporters of the NPP have filed Court injunction on the entire election in the constituency over alleged electoral register irregularities.

At the Aburi Constituency, there was chaos at the party office when Member of Parliament for the area O.B Amoah stormed the party office with some irate followers to nullify forms issued out by the election committee to the various aspirants.

According to him, he needed to sanction the process. Some of the constituency executives had to flee the party office.