A decision by the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party to cancel a certified election which took place at Manhyia North has placed him in the bad books of the incumbent MP for the area.
Hon. Collins Owusu Amankwah revealed on Peace FM’s evening news that after going through the hassle to properly elect electoral area coordinators from ninety six polling stations, it all came to nothing because Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie decided to rubbish their effort in a repressive manner.
The peeved MP noted the fact that because Regional Executives had supervised and certified the vetting process, there was no room for their General Secretary to use his authority to invalidate the process.
“Per our status quo, there shouldn’t be any external influence. If regional executives have supervised and certified a vetting process, no one has the authority to cancel the election,” he explained.
He accused Mr. Owusu Afriyie of steering the affairs of the party like a fan club and warned him not to use his position to disturb the party’s system. “This is a political party governed by a constitution, it isn’t a fan club,” he warned.
The elections according to him were supervised by the Electoral Commission of Ghana; making it difficult for contestants to use fraudulent means to amass votes.
“Per the electoral laws of this land and the political party act, Sir John as General Secretary has no power under any law to declare our elections void,” he declared.
When Sir John was reached for his side of the story, he managed to keep his explanations short by stating that as General Secretary of the party, the onus lies on him to ensure the party enjoys a free and fair elections at all times.
He continued that there were a lot of controversies surrounding the way elections were organized at Manhyia North and this called for him to exercise his authority.
“There were a lot of issues surrounding the election and this came before the regional party officers. Before the constituency elections came on at Manhyia North, some of the candidates went to court and an injunction was placed on it. As secretary, I called the executives there to ensure the issue was peacefully resolved and they did as I said. We had to invalidate the elections because we found out that the elections were not supervised by regional executives. When I called the MP for the area to find out, he affirmed it and that makes the whole process flawed,” he averred.
