NPP Ellembele PC’s voter ID card seized by EC after showcasing

The New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Candidate for Ellembele, Kwasi Bonzoh had only a brief moment to show off his newly acquired voter identification card after it was taken back by officials of the Electoral Commission due to a challenge filed on his eligibility to register.

A resident at the Awiebo Junction D/A Primary School registration centre filed a challenge against Mr Bonzoh after he registered, forcing him to relinquish his ID card to EC officials pending the outcome of a review of the challenge.

Speaking to the media after this development, Mr Bonzoh who is currently serving as the District Chief Executive of Ellembele said the move by his challenger is only an indication of the fears harboured by the opposition NDC against his candidature.

“It's ridiculous that this early morning I received a text message that the NDC was planning to challenge my registration today. I took it with a pinch of salt, only for me to go there today and an NDC agent shows up saying that he does not know me in the area so he is going to challenge me.”

“Initially, I thought it was a joke, but lo and behold he actually challenged my registration to the extent that after my registration my card was not released to me. I find it very ridiculous because this is a town that I hail from, my father's hometown. My father is alive and he is not even dead for anybody to say that they even remember my father.”

“For me, it tells me one thing that the NDC is so scared of my candidature this year and that they wish they would not find my face on the ballot paper. That's why they are using all these crude means to try to disenfranchise me but I am not worried because the laws of this country are with. The law says that you either hail from there or reside in that area. In my case, I hail from Awiebo.”

According to Mr Boonzoh, even though he has previously registered and voted in his mother's hometown in the same constituency, he rather chose to register in his father's hometown which he says he has the right to.

However, the Registration Officer for the Awiebo Junction D/A Primary School registration centre has made it clear to Mr Bonzoh that his application will now have to be reviewed before he may have access to his ID Card.

“We just received one challenge. Someone has challenged the DCE of Ellembele that he is not a resident of this area. So we have processed the challenge and we cannot give him his card unless they meet at the court [review] and if the challenger is not able to prove or if the DCE is able to prove that he is a resident here, the card would be given to him.”

Solomon Isaac, who challenged the NPP parliamentary candidate, justified his reasons for the challenge.

“We heard that the DCE was coming to register here and I don't know that the DCE is from this place. For the past years of staying here, I have never seen him here or voting here. So how come he is now coming to register here.”

Kwasi Bonzoh is set to contest the incumbent MP for Ellembele, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah for the third consecutive time come December 7.