Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Monday, August
03, 2015
There appears to be confusion in some
constituencies in the Greater Accra New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the election
of their parliamentary candidates.
Some candidates from Klottey Korley and
Okaikoi South were said to have boycotted the elections yesterday even though
the processes were held amidst the protestations.
At Klottey Korley, Lawyer Philip Addison and
another contender, Samuel Nii Adjei Tawiah, a former parliamentary candidate
for the constituency, boycotted the process, citing ‘bad faith’ on the part of some
national, regional and constituency executives, leaving the turf for Nii Noi
Nortey, who had 393 votes out of almost 800 in the constituency.
Vicky Bright, a candidate at Okaikoi South, also
withdrew from the race at the last minute, accusing some of the party’s
executives of trying to ‘shepherd’ incumbent MP Ahmed Arthur to another victory
in spite of her claims that the MP should be disqualified for forgery.
Addison described the election as a sham, pointing
accusing fingers at Kwabena Agyepong, NPP General Secretary, for allegedly
manipulating the process.
The Electoral Commission had refused to
conduct the polls on Sunday, citing short notice, but DAILY GUIDE sources
indicated that the NPP General Secretary went ahead to get the election done
yesterday.
Ahead of the polls, there was confusion at
the party headquarters, but Mr Agyepong was nowhere to be found when he was needed
to resolve the crisis. It took police reinforcement to restore calm at the
polling venue, with one person being arrested.
Addison Speaks
Mr Addison confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that he
indeed boycotted the election held at the NPP National Head Office at Asylum
Down, Accra, and added that he was aware Nii Adjei Tawiah also boycotted the
exercise since they all agreed earlier that the election should be held on
August 8 and not August 2, as was done through an executive fiat.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that a letter from General Secretary Kwabena Agyei Agyepong
indicating the election be held on August 2, was what was used in spite of an
earlier meeting reportedly held by the three candidates at the instance of Mr
Agyepong where they agreed on August 8.
The election was originally fixed for July
13, but was put on hold due to a legal battle which sought to disqualify one
candidate, Nii Noi Nortey, but the case was subsequently dismissed by an Accra
Fast Track High Court last Thursday.
“We were summoned to a meeting at the
Regional Office of the party last Friday by the Regional Secretary and we were
made to understand that it was at the instance of the National General
Secretary,” Mr Addison told DAILY GUIDE.
“I was there and my contender Adjei Tawiah
was also there. Regional Secretary, Regional Vice Chair, Constituency
Chairperson Juliana Aboagye, Elections Committee Chairman for the constituency,
who also doubles as Chairman of the Council of Elders, and a member of the
Elections Committee called Eunice Hammond were all at the meeting.”
Nii Noi’s
Absence
He said “we waited for about an hour and Nii
Noi did not show up. So the Regional Secretary suggested we postpone the
meeting to Monday because Nii Noi was not there and others suggested we could
go ahead and relay the information to him later. We all finally agreed on next
Saturday (August 8) for the election.”
Mr Addison disclosed that “we also discussed
the issue of accreditation and the venue which we said should be at the
National Party Office.”
General
Secretary’s Statement
He noted that “sometime in the evening on
Friday, I heard the General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong had issued a statement
saying that the election will come off on Sunday, August 2.
We had ended the
meeting around 2pm on Friday. The final agreement I understand was communicated
to him. We informed our delegates and everything that the election should be
held August 8.
“I was surprised when the radio stations
started calling in to ask me about the impending exercise. At least we should
have been called back and told the election is set for August 2. When we have
circulated that it won’t come on and some delegates have travelled and all, and
also late Friday when everything is closed, how are we going to mobilise for an
exercise for the weekend.”
No Election
He said that interestingly on the same
Friday, they received a letter from the constituency election committee “outlining
all that we discussed and saying there will be no elections on August 2.”
Mr Addison insisted that “all the elections
committee officers are not part of the process going on now. Everything is being
handled by the constituency chairperson and her vice who were in the same
meeting with us. The constituency election committee is clearly not involved in
the whole process.”
Nii Adjei Tawiah was particularly disappointed
that General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong failed to show up during a meeting held
to agree on an appropriate date; but Nii Noi Nortey has rubbished concerns by
his opponents about the date for the conduct of the election.
Nii Noi’s
Rebuttal
“I don’t see anything wrong with what the General
Secretary said...because if you are an aspirant, from the very first time you
picked a form to contest in this election, you knew the elections were coming
off on June 13. That means you should be ready by June 13. Any other issue that
dragged the election should not affect your campaign,” he told Joy FM.
“I was the one whose matters went out there.
I was the one who six people filed petitions against and it has not affected my
campaign in any way.”
Results Declared
In spite of the controversy, the results were
later declared, with Nii Noi polling 393 votes to beat Mr Addison, who had 22
and Nii Adjei Tawiah with 19 votes.
About 800 delegates were expected to cast
their ballots and the situation clearly showed there was voter apathy, as
Addison was said to have told his supporters not to take part in the process. Even
with that, he had 22 votes with no agent at the polls.
Vicky’s Beef
Vicky Bright on the other hand accused the
incumbent MP for Okaikoi South, Ahmed Arthur, of fraud, adding that she was unable
to take part in a ‘fraudulent’ contest, at a news conference.
She insisted that Ahmed Arthur forged his
certificate, which was said to have been awarded him by the Ghana Institute of
Journalism (GIJ), for which reason she petitioned the party to disqualify him.
The party on Friday set the election for
Sunday after an Accra High Court dismissed a petition for injunction on the
election on Thursday.
At the end of the exercise, Ahmed Arthur
polled 505 votes while the beleaguered Vicky Bright polled 29 out of the 540
total votes cast.
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