NPP parliamentary candidate denies distributing EC materials

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency in the Greater Accra Region has debunked reports that he made available some items to aid officers of the

Electoral Commission EC conducting the voter registration exercise in the constituency. This comes after his contender, Alexander Akuoko who is the NDC parliamentary candidate for the same constituency

accused him of distributing items to the EC officials in the registration centres to aid them in their work. Mr. Akuoko insisted that he saw agents of Sly Tetteh making these distributions with his own pickup vehicle,

branded with President Akufo-Addo’s pictures. Alexander Akuoko said his assertions were justified when Mr. Tetteh, in an interview with Accra 100.5 FM on Monday morning said he saw nothing wrong with his vehicle being used to make the distributions.

But the NPP candidate, who also doubles as the CEO of the National Youth Authority, denied these allegations. According to him, the items he provided were only plastic chairs and tables for the elderly and vulnerable registrants in the various centres and not materials for the officers of the Electoral Commission.

“I was not carrying out duties for the Electoral Commission and that should be put on record. I was home and saw a video. I did not deny that my vehicle was at the centre before the EC even arrived. We also have our agents and we went to provide chairs for the aged at various centres, and that’s not the only place I provided chairs for the aged.

I did not know what exactly it was at the time the call came from the radio station Accra FM but I spoke to my guys on the ground and they said they were only chairs and not EC materials. This must be made clear that they were chairs and tables and not EC materials as being said on radio. So I wasn’t there in person, but my vehicle was there,” he said.

Issues with registration

The first day of the voter registration exercise nationwide was marked by the anticipated concerns about faulty machines, long queues and a lack of social distancing amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic. Across Ghana’s 16 regions, there are 6,788 clusters made up of five registration centres each.

Although there were issues like what happened in Bortianor Ngleshie Amanfro, the problem which topped the chart was the struggle to adhere to social distancing. In some registration centres, efforts to cause the people to space out themselves were highly ignored.

The Korle Bu Police Station registration centre within the Ablekuma South District also identified over 20 persons seeking to register for the voter ID card presenting symptoms of COVID-19 at the centre.