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NDC Central Regional
Secretariat threatens to sue EC over votes transfer
Cape Coast, Nov. 13, Ghanadot/GNA - Mr Ebo Barton-Odro,
National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate
for Cape Coast Constituency on Thursday, threatened that the
Party would sue the Electoral Commission (EC) if it failed
to furnish it with particulars of voters seeking to transfer
their votes to the constvotes ituency, to enable it
investigate and ascertain their authenticity.
He said all attempts by the Party to have such particulars
from the Cape Coast Metropolitan Office of the EC had proved
futile, and Mr Anthony Nyame the Electoral Officer, failed
to honour earlier promises to make copies of the particulars
available to all the political parties.
Addressing a press conference to register the Party’s
protest on the “unfolding events on the vote transfers”, Mr
Barton-Odro said as at Wednesday, the EC had received 2,515
applications for vote transfers to the constituency alone,
and expressed the view that the EC was conniving with the
NPP, since the figure was huge.
He claimed that rather than provide the particulars, the EC
had asked the NDC agents to copy them which he said, was
impossible due to the huge number involved.
Mr Barton-Odro said the EC had earlier at a Municipal
Inter-Party Advisory Committee (MIPAC) meeting agreed that
such mass transfers were tantamount to rigging and asked why
it should later turn round to effect such transfers.
He alleged that students from UCC and Cape Coast
Polytechnic, who were transported to the metropolitan office
of EC on Tuesday, were influenced with money by the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) and said “democracy is being dragged
into the mud”
Mr Barton-Odro said at another meeting on Wednesday, the EC
did not allow the political parties to express their views,
but rather imposed a decision to site an office at the
University of Cape Coast (UCC) stressing that it was not a
MIPAC decision to site an office at UCC.
When contacted Mr Nyame, explained that he asked the
political parties to copy the particulars of those seeking
to transfer their votes, because the EC did not have the
resources to make copies available to them.
Mr Ekow Danquah-Smith, Central Regional Chairman of NPP,
denied the allegation that NPP was influencing students in
the two institutions to transfer their votes.
When GNA visited UCC campus, the transfer of votes was going
on smoothly with particulars of 160 of the students having
been taken as at 11:30 am, with representatives of both TEIN
and TESCON monitoring.
In another development, Dr Joseph Samuel Annan, NDC
Parliamentary Candidate for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA)
Constituency also alleged at the press conference that he
was assaulted on Thursday by Nana Ato Arthur Central
Regional Minister, at the EC Office in Elmina and that a
different story would have been told if the Minister’s body
guard had not intervened.
Nana Arthur, who is also contesting the seat on the ticket
of NPP, denied the allegation in a telephone interview and
explained that it was rather Dr Annan who confronted him
about threats he the Minister was purported to have made,
and that he in turn, just asked him “which threats?” and
went away.
GNA
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