'Ballot thief' Carlos Ahenkorah 'chewed, swallowed 2 ballot papers'; Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu put him up to it – NDC

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has alleged that Suame MP Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was the one who put Tema West MP Carlos Ahenkorah up to the snatching of ballot papers on the floor of Parliament during the election of a Speaker on Thursday, 7 January 2020.

According to the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the Tema West MP, after bolting with the ballot papers, chewed and swallowed two of them before he was caught.

“After the sorting of ballots, the completion of the first part of the counting process which saw one rejected ballot and 136 votes cast in favour of Prof Mike Aaron Oquaye, the NPP MP for Suame, Hon Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was seeing directing Hon Carlos Ahenkorah another NPP MP for Tema West to the table where the ballots were being counted”.

“In fact, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was shoving another MP off to pave the way for Carlos Ahenkorah. Immediately after, Hon Carlos Ahenkorah dashed to the table, snatched a heap of ballots being counted for Bagbin and took to heels in a Usain Bolt style. Once again, the gallantry of the NDC MPs was on display and within minutes, the ballot thief had been arrested and the papers retrieved, even though he had managed to chew and swallowed two ballot papers”, Mr Nketia told journalists on Friday, 8 January 2020.

“Surprisingly”, he noted, “the same leadership of NPP, who had orchestrated this daylight robbery in Parliament, unashamedly began calling for the annulment of the election on account of the ballots having been tampered with”.

“You go and steal ballot papers and you want somebody’s victory to be annulled because of your thievery. This is exactly what played out in Sene West, where the NPP Youth Organiser snatched a ballot box, managed to break the NPP seal on the box when he was arrested and both the Electoral Commission and NDC accepted that the ballots could be counted, the same NPP people came demanding that the box had been tampered with, so, they cannot be counted and when the matter went to court when the thief was sent to court, his senior official, the Deputy Regional Chairman of NPP in Bono Region, was the lawyer to defend him”.

“When that defence failed and the thief was jailed three months for tampering with the ballot box, then they came back and tried to prevent the counting of the contents of the box through the court injunction. Unfortunately, that did not succeed”.

“The same way as the attempt to spoil Bagbin’s vote did not succeed and, so, the NDC MP in Sene West had to be declared the winner the same way as Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin has also been declared the winner”.

Meanwhile, Mr Ahenkorah has apologised for his misconduct.

In a press statement, Mr Ahenkorah explained: “I did it for the grassroots who relied on us in power to survive, the president who needs some peace to run the country and the greater NPP party as a whole because we cannot always allow the NDC to threaten and vilify us”.

“I apologise though to my family and friends, both far and near, who may be affected by my actions.”

“The NPP in me couldn’t be controlled. I apologise but I tried!!!”

Seven-time Nadowli Kaleo MP Alban Bagbin of the opposition NDC, eventually, emerged winner from the chaotic voting process by beating ex-Speaker Prof Mike Oquaye of the governing NPP.