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Some nine candidates contesting various positions ahead of the New Patriotic Party’s regional elections in the Ashanti Region are pushing for a full-scale audit of the voter register ahead of election day.
An NPP Communicator, Keskine Owusu Poku, who filed the petition on behalf of these individuals at the party headquarters in Accra on Tuesday, is also questioning the delay in the release of the album.
Possible delays
A Regional Election Committee has been constituted to supervise the upcoming polls. Its Chairman, who is also the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah provided some clarity on why the album may suffer some delays.
“The preparation of the album is not within the mandate of this committee. We are waiting for the album from the national headquarters. The moment we get the album, we will invite all of you and give you copies of the albums”, the Minister said during a meeting with the candidates at the Regional Coordinating Council last Saturday.
Candidates not convinced
But it appears the nine candidates are not convinced with the Minister’s explanation as they allege that the names of non-tertiary students are allegedly being infiltrated into the album through the Tertiary Students Confederacy, TESCON, a student wing of the NPP.
Keskin Owusu Poku insisted that the right album must be used to make the upcoming polls free and fair for all.
“We also have some concerns regarding the constituencies that still have their appointments hanging in the balance. There are constituencies where there is some kind of disagreement on who gets appointed. We want to ensure that nobody is forced into the album through the backdoor. The same way applies to the TESCON list. We have heard stories that they have brought in a whole new set of people and in some cases, these people do not even attend school at the various tertiary institutions where they are supposed to be the representatives of TESCON”, he alleged.
“When any candidate goes out, the candidate meets the TESCON Presidents, so on what basis anybody will try to present different names outside the TESCON list? And even if the constitution talks about a rep of TESCON, we believe that it does not lie within the powers of anybody among the regional executives to be the one to determine who represents TESCON. It should be the TESCON executives themselves who should decide that.”
He further said the team was waiting for the album to do an individual verification of persons on the album, emphasizing “that is the only panacea to having free and fair elections.
Election Day
The NPP is picking new regional officers to manage affairs in the next four years. In the Ashanti Region, 39 aspirants are contesting various slots to lead the party ahead of the 2024 polls.
Five candidates are contesting the regional chairmanship position including incumbent chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, also known as Wontumi. His main opponent Odeneho Kwaku Appiah is seeking to unseat him.
The election is slated for Friday, May 27, 2022, at the residency of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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