The Electoral Commission (EC) has denied allegations of collaboration with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to illegally insert the name of an unqualified NPP parliamentary candidate into the Assin North voters’ register.
The EC has stated that it has not received any such request from the NPP to transfer the votes of any person.
The NDC National Communications Officer had alleged that the NPP and the EC were colluding to transfer the vote of one Charles Opoku to the Assin North Constituency to enable him to contest the upcoming by-election in the said constituency.
The EC has emphasized that a person does not need to be a registered voter in a particular constituency to contest an election in that constituency.
According to Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, simply hailing from a constituency entitles a person to contest an election in that constituency as long as the person is a Ghanaian, twenty-one years and above, of sound mind, and a registered voter.
In the event that a person who wishes to contest in a particular constituency does not hail from that constituency, that person will be eligible to contest if he/she is ordinarily resident in that constituency or has been a resident there for a total period of not less than five years out of the ten years immediately preceding the election for which he/she stands.
The EC has reiterated that the NDC’s allegations are false and a figment of the author’s imagination.
To this end, The EC has urged the good people of Ghana not to allow the continuous maligning of state institutions such as the EC by the NDC to weaken and undermine Ghana’s democracy.
Below is the Electoral Commission’s full statement
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Source: Aba Aikins Appah/ATLFMNEWS
