Deputy Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ernest Owusu Bempah has said the allegation made by the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Sammy Gyamfi against the Electoral Commission (EC) and the NPP is a childish strategy by the NDC to create the impression in the minds of Assin North constituents that something fishy is being done by EC regarding the upcoming by-election.
“This is a childish strategy, he is a lawyer and he is supposed to know better. That is their strategy to create a certain impression in the minds of the people of Assin North.
“The NDC has intelligent men and women, they have big lawyers in the party and they allow this statement to come out,” he said on the Big Issue with Roland Walker on TV3 Thursday, June 8.
He added, “The NDC has nothing to offer the people of Assin, they were in power but they didn’t do anything for them.”
Bempah was reacting to the statement by Sammy Gyamfi which alleged that the NPP was conniving with the Electoral Commission to insert an illegal name onto the voters register, an allegation the EC denied.
Mr Gyamfi’s statement said “this illegal move is to aid the said Charles Opoku to contest in the NPP Parliamentary primaries to select a candidate for the upcoming Assin North by-election.
“Our unimpeachable sources have revealed that contrary to the clear requirement on the nomination form for the Assin North by-election, which demands that a candidate in the election must be a registered voter in Assin North, the said Charles Opoku is not a registered voter in the Assin North Constituency.”
The EC dismissed the claim in a statement.
The Commission said “For the records, the EC has not received any such request from the NPP to transfer the votes of any person. This allegation is false and a figment of the author’s imagination. As usual, it is aimed at maligning the integrity of the Electoral Commission.
“Per Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, a person does not need to be a registered voter in a particular constituency to enable him/ her to contest an election in that constituency.”