The election of polling station executives of the New Patriotic Party in the Yendi constituency turned chaotic when some irate youth vandalized the party’s office over the weekend.
It is reported by myjoyonline.com that this came about after a warning from the NPP’s leadership that said that it would expel members who do not use internal mechanisms to address their concerns.
There have been claims by the youth that the Member of Parliament for Yendi, Farouk Aliu Mahama, wants to get his favourite persons through the process through dubious means.
The youth claimed that the register being used for the exercise has unapproved names and individuals captured in it, and that’s because the MP is masterminding it.
“We were told on the radio and the constituency secretary met polling station chairmen, secretaries and coordinators and informed them that no existing polling station executive will be removed from the album but today the album that is on social media circulating is reported to have removed about 165 existing polling stations.
“What we realised from the so-called register is that they have put family and friends, husbands and wives and people who do not vote in the various polling stations that they put them as executives. We in Yendi cannot be bought by anybody,” they said.
In a similar development, the Tano North Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ahafo Region, has described the party’s just ended polling station elections in the constituency as free, fair, and credible.
They, therefore, called on the national leadership of the NPP to disregard allegations of electoral irregularities being peddled by some party supporters in the area, saying such allegations were untrue and unsubstantiated.
At a news conference held at Tanoso in the constituency, the executives said the elections were conducted in accordance with procedures as spelt out in the party’s constitution, saying the allegation of irregularities was a calculated ploy by the few disgruntled supporters, ostensibly to taint the beauty of the elections.
“A committee with membership clearly defined was formed to supervise the conduct of a competitive, transparent, credible, free and fair election across all the polling stations in the constituency particularly, in areas where there was more than a single nomination for a particular position.
“This is an exercise never witnessed in the constituency in the last ten years,” Gloria Kwartemaa Amponsah, the Women Organiser for the Apostolic Polling Station, stated.
She insisted that the “allegation of deliberately replacing existing polling station executives with new and non-party members can only come from a weak mind in the sense that announcements on the conduct of polls preceded the polling day across all polling stations.”
She called on the National Executive Committee (NEC) to remain firm and resolute, “else some individuals within the party will succeed in pushing their selfish and personal interest at the expense of the collective interest of the NPP.
“We are not preaching or prophesying doom or calamity to befall on the party in Tano North but if the NEC follows lies and takes any unpopular decision based on that, then what happens in the constituency aftermath cannot be the responsibility of anyone but the NEC.”
