Voters register: Tension at Asuogyaman over allegations of bribery, registration of non-residents

There was near pandemonium at the Adinakope polling station at South Senchi in the Asuogyaman constituency of the Eastern Region Friday afternoon as NDC Member of Parliament for the area, Thomas Ampem Nyarko and aspiring MP on the ticket of the NPP, Paul Asare Ansah clashed over allegations of bribery of party agents and attempts to register nonresidents in the area.

The confrontation began Friday morning when party agents of the ruling party at the said polling station attempted to prevent a woman from registering on the basis that she did not hail from the area and was therefore not eligible to register there.

Not even the intervention of military and police personnel drawn to the scene could calm nerves.

The commotion drew both the MP and the aspiring Member of Parliament to the scene with the latter accusing the former and his associates of attempting to bribe some of the party agents to influence them to allow nonresidents to register.

Mr. Paul Ansah who was the Director-General of the Ports and Harbours Authority and now Technical Director at the Ministry of Transport said he had evidence of the mobile money transaction of Ghc200 from the Asuogyaman NDC constituency chairman, Bright Sikanku to one of the party's agents.

“They approached three of our agents and promised them all kinds of things and indeed, we have evidence here. The NDC constituency secretary, Bright Sikanku, sent Ghc 200 to Mr. Gati [an NPP agent] to allow them to bring applicants from North Tongu and other places,” alleged Mr. Ansah, adding that the NPP aspirant said the party agent was told that the NDC had brought in some foreign applicants as part of a bigger plan to ‘smuggle’ in 5000 people from surrounding constituencies.

“As a responsible Member of Parliament, why do you do this?” asked Mr. Ansah. “It is shameful to employ fraudulent means to secure the seat in Asuogyaman.”

While he said the issue was reported to the Electoral Commission before the commencement of the exercise with the District Elections Committee warning all sides against bringing in people from other constituencies, the NDC was still bent on perpetuating the fraud.

He urged indigenes of Asuogyaman to come home and vote to “save it from the wretchedness of life.”

MP’s denial, counter accusations

But denying the allegations, MP for Asuogyaman, Thomas Ampem Nyarko said he did not know any agent of the NPP and could therefore not bribe any of them as being alleged by his opponent.

“I don’t even know who their agents are so I can’t speak to that,” he said, adding that none of his people will bribe anybody because the NDC had enough votes to secure an outright win.

He said he rushed to the Adinakope polling station after receiving a call that someone was being physically prevented by members of the NPP from registering.

The MP whose intervention finally paved the way for the woman in question to register said nobody had the right to physically prevent anybody from registering as due process to challenge any such issues were available.

“Nobody can, based on their strength, say that we will physically prevent anybody from registering,” said the agitated MP who said Friday’s event was not an isolated incident as the NPP was preventing many people from registering at various centers. “This is not an isolated case, it is what they have been doing since day one that we started the registration.”

He also accused the NPP of rather plotting to register nonresidents and disclosed that he had sufficient evidence to back his claims against the NPP.

“We have pictures of people that the NPP have brought into the constituency to register and all that. We have been trailing them [and] when we see them registering, we’ll challenge them,” he vowed.