NDC polls: No party militia, motorbikes – Police

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The Ghana Police Service has issued security directives for NDC’s flagbearer elections to be held on February 23 with a stern warning that unauthorised security arrangements will not be entertained.

The directives contained in a statement dated Thursday February, 21, 2019 and signed by ASP David Eklu, Director-General Public Affairs Department further warned unauthorised person found carrying  offensive weapons be it gun, knives machetes within the parameters or close to voting and collation centres shall be apprehended and made to face the full rigours of the law.

It continued that no motorbike whether registered or unregistered shall be allowed anywhere close to a voting or collation centre.

Urging cooperation to ensure successful and peaceful elections, the statement declared: “Police shall be in charge of security. Any unauthorised security arrangement shall not be tolerated.”

The directives by the Police come days after a shooting incident at the Ashanti Regional office of the NDC during a meeting in which the chairman of the NDC Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia were in attendance.

One person lost his life with several others sustaining injuries when members of the pro-NDC vigilante group – The Hawks – clashed during the meeting.

The Ashanti Regional Police Command declared 12 people wanted following the shooting incident at the National Democratic Congress regional office in Kumasi on Monday.

The scramble for NDC’s soul

The NDC will on Saturday February 23 hold its much awaited flagbearer elections across the country.

Six persons including former President John Mahama, Veteran MP and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin and Joshua Alabi are scrambling to lead the NDC into the 2020 elections.

A survey conducted by the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) puts Mahama ahead of his challengers.

According to the latest survey, Mahama is the favourite candidate, having polled 10,802 representing 64% out of 12,000 people sampled. Bagbin managed 303 votes (1.8%) as against Ekow Spio Garbrah’s 32.3%.

The survey however, did not go down well with Mahama’s challengers with Bagbin questioning the credibility of the research.

For him, the outcome of the survey had been cooked and that should be “treated with a pinch of salt.”

“It’s a table top research,” he said adding that there would be a shock in the contest for a flagbearer.

“People will have another shock,” he said in a recent interview an obvious reference to the defeat the NDC suffered in the hands of the NPP in the 2016 elections.

In that elections the NDC led by Mahama election was heavily tipped to be victorious by a research conducted by Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper and pollster Ben Ephson.

The research predicted a ‘one-touch’ victory for former president John Mahama.

According to the poll, Mahama would garner 52.4 per cent of the votes whilst his main rival Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would get 45.9 per cent.

The outcome of the election was the other way round with the NPP’s Akufo-Addo winning.

Source: Daily Mail Gh