The attention of the Office of the Majority Leader, and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has been drawn to an online publication under the caption “90% of NPP Polling Station Executives are Useless to the Party – Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu”, which was filed by mynewsgh.com on 25th June 2020, and subsequently used by Ghanaweb on the same day.
On behalf of the Majority Leader, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, we would like to make it clear, and without any shred of ambiguity, that this publication in mynewsgh.com , which was purportedly taken from an interview Hon. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu granted to Oman FM, is totally false, and does not reflect the content and spirit of the discourse.
First and foremost, we would like to state that the interview in question was granted in the lead-up to the 2020 General elections. And that, the genuine desire by men of dignity to propel the party’s base for the task ahead cannot be interpreted to mean an insult, as strong, as useless, to the Polling Station Executives.
The Majority Leader, in his usual periodic meetings with his Polling Station Executives, had sought to explain the functions of Polling Station Executives to enable them function effectively, going into the crucial 2020 elections. It was in this regard that he quoted Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution, which provides that a political party has the right ” to participate in shaping the political will of the people to disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes to the citizens of the country” to buttress his point. This was after the Polling Station Executives had responded that, indeed, about 90% of them had not been executing their core mandate of explaining the policies and programmes of government to the electorates in their various communities (refered to as _house-to-house campaigns ) as required of them.
In similar meetings that the Majority Leader recently held with the same Polling Station Executives in all the 18 Electoral Areas of the Suame Constituency, he inquired if any single Executive had, within the past year, dedicated 2hrs of his/her time to the house-to-house campaigns, and the answer was a big ‘No’ across the board.
In this respect, the MP reminded them that Article 6 (1)(b) of the NPP Constitution provides that the prime duty of the 5-member Polling Station Executive is to “be responsible for house-to-house campaigns”
The Majority Leader emphasised at every Electoral Area that ‘in order that the “Breaking-the-8” credo would not end up being mere sloganeering, the Polling Station Executives, who had admitted not living up to their responsibilities, should wake up to the task ahead.
This is the clear, unambiguous message that the Majority Leader has been delivering to his constituents. And it is the same message that he gave during the radio interview on OMAN FM about 3 years ago.
The Office finds it most unfortunate that someone, with his own agenda, pulled this noble quest for the betterment of our great Party, granted three(3) years ago, and has given it his own twist to serve his propaganda, not for party interest, but for political mischief.
What makes the recirculation of such falsehood even more appalling is the person’s own addition to the story that “it is the same Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu who has shown this gross disrespect to the Polling Station Executives who is appealing to the same Polling Station Executives to vote for the Vice President in the upcoming Presidential Primaries of the NPP. Now the cat is out of the bag! How base could one get!!
We believe strongly that there are discerning minds in the NPP Party and that the electorates are discerning to realize that the spin being put on this straight-forward message for propaganda purposes, is clear to all that desperate souls would want to clutch at straws. This, we assure you, will not wash.
We would also like to use this opportunity to assure all right-thinking party faithfuls that, the Majority Leader, Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, is too smart for such pedestrian manipulation of facts.
His record as the longest-serving Member of Parliament is a clear and irrevocable manifestation of the mutual respect that has existed between the astute politician and the Party/Polling Station Executives over the years and this will continue to exist and even get much strengthened.
We are appealing that, whilst we maintain the highest degree of respect for the important role the media plays in reshaping the national discourse, we would also like to call on them to, at all times, seek to hear the other side of a story before publishing it in order not to dent the image of the noble profession.
Thank you
Signed
Office of The Majority Leader
