Asuogyaman NPP youth accuse NDC of plotting to bus non-residents to registration centers

The National Democratic Congress has hatched diabolical plans in the ongoing voter registration exercise to rig the December 7 parliamentary and presidential elections in Asuogyaman, the New Patriotic Party’s youth wing in the constituency has alleged.

The youth wing in a charged press conference held at the party’s constituency office on Monday, June 29, 2020, and addressed by its youth organizer, Solomon Ansah claimed that the opposition party led by the Member Of Parliament for the area, Thomas Ampem Nyarko was planning to embark on mass importation of thousands of foreign applicants from Togo to partake in the new voters’ registration exercise.

The party also accused the MP and his party of planning to embark on mass transfer of non-resident applicants from neighbouring constituencies including Lower Manya Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, North Tongu, South Tongu, Central Tongu, South Dayi and North Dayi.

Another charge the party levelled against its opponents was an intended mass registration of children under 18 years using false birth certificates and guarantors to subvert the integrity of the registration exercise.

The intent of the schemes, according to the NPP youth, is to enable the infiltrators to vote in the Ewe and Krobo communities in the Asuogyaman constituency, a scheme the group considers unfair and illegal.

This clandestine move by the NDC, they insist, is supposedly founded on their (NDC) own presumption that the Member of Parliament has become unpopular with the constituents.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this agenda of the sitting NDC Member of Parliament, Hon Thomas Ampem Nyarko is based on his own self-realization that the people of Asuogyaman have lost trust and confidence in him as a former DCE for four years and an MP for another four years due to his poor performance,” Solomon Ansah said.

Citing a University of Ghana Political Science Department research that disclosed that only 30% of the respondents from Asuogyaman said they would vote for the sitting MP, the NPP said efforts by the NDC to subvert this finding by courting the intervention of the party’s flagbearer, John Mahama and some 19 minority MPs and party leaders to campaign for him in the Ewe and Zongo communities of the constituency did not work.

While the NPP said it was sending a strong caution to Mr Thomas Ampem Darko to discontinue his plans, it also said, “Strangers brought in by the NDC must not set foot at any of the registration centres with the intention of coming to register to vote in Asuogyaman.”

The party also cautioned residents not to condone and connive with the NDC to harbour any “electoral intruders” in their homes and churches, adding that parents must advise their children under 18 years to abstain from the registration centres.

The determined youth wing said it was resolute to protect its destiny and was not in the position to guarantee the safety of any intruder bent on obstructing the electoral process.

“If need be, we will defend our destiny with our blood and in this, we cannot guarantee the safety of any foreign or non-resident intruder who seeks to interfere in the upcoming registration process in Asuogyaman,” they warned.

Other members at the press conference were the Deputy Youth Organizer, Nana Yaw Debrah, Women Organizer, Mavis Akonnor, Communication Officer, Isaac Afunya and other party faithful.

With the NPP losing the seat in 2016 to the NDC with a gap of just about 2,000 votes, any significant number of infiltrators by either side could swing the results either way.