Halt Use of Machomen

- Afari Gyan Tells Political Parties

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari- Gyan has stated that the use of macho men of late by political parties to monitor elections is absolutely unnecessary and called for an immediate halt to the practice.

He said the maintenance of peace and security at all polling stations during the day of election supervised by the EC is the sole responsibility of the state and not the political parties contesting the election therefore it would be wrong for them to bus in macho men during the election to monitor it.

Dr. Afari-Gyan who speaking to reporters eight hours after the start of the just ended Amenfi West by-election at Asankragwa said he personally had to drive away some machomen whom he spotted at some of the polling stations when he was going round because he saw their presence as absolutely unnecessary.

According to Afari-Gyan it was to check all forms of malpractices at the polling stations that the EC decided that each party contesting the election should present an accredited agent who must sit at the polling station till voting ended.

He said it would therefore be wrong for a party to bring machomen to loiter around the polling station to check fraudulent practices when the said party already had an accredited agent who had been assigned this job.

He warned that if an immediate stop were not put to this machomen issue that is surfacing in our electoral process, it would one day result in a violent confrontation with disastrous consequences that could have been avoided.

Indeed the last Thursday Amenfi by-election which saw the defeat of the NDC the sixth consecutive time could best be described as a display of machomen by both NPP and the NDC.

These machomen from both parties were seen criss-crossing all the polling stations in the constituency during the day of voting in their cross-country vehicles.

The Western regional chairman of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu indeed admitted to Chronicle that he brought in men from outside the constituency to protect their votes because of the earlier warning given by his NDC counterpart that he would not accept any outcome of the election apart from being declared as winners.

He said he indeed saw that NDC had actually brought in machomen to apparently carry out the threat, which was given by their chairman hence his decision to also follow suit.

NDC had earlier accused NPP of also busing in machomen to come and help them carry out their alleged malpractices during the election day.

The party therefore promised that it would bring in machomen to protect their interest especially on the election day.

These threats compelled the authorities concerned to strengthen security at all the polling stations.

In fact as many as 220 policemen including senior officers were sent to the constituency to tighten security.

Each of the polling stations was supplied with not less than three policemen with one holding a gun and sitting at a distance away from the voting place whilst the unarmed ones sat directly at the polling station.

The remaining policemen were assigned the duty of patrolling all the major roads in the constituency to crash out any eventuality. A

part from this, a detachment of military men who reportedly arrived in the constituency at 3am on the voting day were also put on high alert to enable them move in quickly to help their police counterparts should any violent situation get out of hand.

NDC members protested vehemently against this decision. Their fears were that the mere presence of the military could scare the voters from turning out to vote.

Dr. Afari-Gyan at his meeting with the press said general security during polls are the responsibility of the state or the national security therefore if they decide to bringing in military men for security reasons his outfit has no problem with it so long as the soldiers do not surface at the polling stations.

Indeed the military men were seen neither at any of the polling stations nor round the constituency on patrol duties as their civilian counterparts were doing.

They were stationed at the district assembly and were not allowed to move out. Despite these security measures that were put in place, a few skirmishes were still recorded.

Soon after the declaration of the final result around 11:45pm, one Opanin J.K. Ofori, the Odikro of Bodei near Asankragwa, rushed to inform the DCE that he had allegedly been attacked by a group of NDC supporters led by his own nephew for jubilating over the NPP victory.

He was later given a medical form to attend hospital by the police. He later had his mouth plastered.