Don’t undermine credibility of elections – NPP presidential aspirants cautioned

The Presidential Elections Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on the various presidential aspirants and their representatives to refrain from disseminating information that undermine the credibility and integrity of the committee and the party ahead of Saturday’s Special Electoral College election.

Vice-Chairman of the committee, Kwabena Abankwah-Yeboah, made the call at a press conference held in Accra yesterday to provide an update on the committee’s work ahead of the election on Saturday.

He assured all the stakeholders in the electoral process, especially the aspirants, of the commitment of the committee to conduct a free, fair, and transparent election without any bias, fear, or favour.

Security
Touching on the security arrangements for the polls, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah said no other security would be permitted at the various voting centres for the election, apart from personnel of the Ghana Police Service.

“We are pleased to inform all party faithful, sympathisers, stakeholders, aspirants, and the public that the committee has entrusted the police to take full and absolute control of the security,” he stated.

“In this regard, no other security will be permitted at the various voting centres.

Persons who are not delegates will be restricted from going beyond a designated security zone set up by the police,” he added.

Mr Abankwah-Yeboah, therefore, urged all the stakeholders in the electoral process to abide by the rules and regulations governing the polls.

On media accreditation, the Vice-Chairman of the committee said there would not be any special accreditation and urged all media personnel to come with their workplace identity cards.

“We are taking this opportunity to invite the media to cover the process.

There will be no special accreditation for the media.

The police will facilitate your movement,” he said.

Delegates
Mr Abankwah-Yeboah disclosed that a total of 956 delegates were expected to participate in this election.

He said they comprised representatives from various party entities, including the National Council, National Executive Committee (NEC), all Regional Executive Committees, all members of the National Council of Elders, Members of Parliament, three representatives of each of the special organs of the party, past national officers, three representatives each from every external branch (27 Branches in all), founder members during the registration of the party at the Electoral Commission.

“The Committee has received 20 proxy applications, as of the submission deadline. Regrettably, one of the applicants has been called to eternity,” he added.

To uphold the highest standards of transparency, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah said the committee had distributed the provisional voter register to the aspirants and encouraged a comprehensive review to identify and report any discrepancies.

Subsequently, he said the committee received valuable feedback from the aspirants regarding instances of omissions, duplications, and other related concerns and that all such concerns had been diligently rectified.

Chief of Staff
Touching on the status of the Chief of Staff at the presidency, Akosua Frema Osei Opare, as to whether she was eligible to vote in the election or not, Mr Abankwah-Yeboah said Mrs Osei-Opare was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) which gave her the right to vote.

EC
Mr Abankwah-Yeboah stressed that the EC would supervised the printing of the Notice of Poll, the printing of the ballot papers, and their dispatch to all regional voting centres across the country and would also supervise the entire process as well.

“Results will be collated at the Electoral Commission Head Office in Accra with the participation of aspirants and/or representatives.

The EC will officially declare the results at the NPP Headquarters, Asylum Down,” he added.

Additionally, he said participants would be required to provide their own seals and added that sealed ballot papers would remain inviolable unless an order was issued by the High Court.

Source: graphic online