Charles Opoku
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has elected Charles Opoku as its parliamentary candidate for the by-election scheduled to take place in the Assin North constituency of the Central Region on June 27.
He won the primary with 397 votes out of the total valid votes of 536. His sole contender, Freeman Amoah-Kyei, got 136 votes, while three ballots were rejected.
The party’s internal election comes after Parliament declared the Assin North seat vacant following a Supreme Court ruling on the eligibility of the sitting Member of Parliament, James Gyakye Quayson to occupy the seat.
Ahead of his election as the NPP’s candidate yesterday, the NDC had claimed that Mr Opoku was not qualified to stand for election in the constituency because he is not a registered voter there. The party even went ahead to accuse the EC of being in “cahoots with the NPP” to insert his name into the voters’ register in the constituency “to enable him contest in election”.
Propaganda falls
Meanwhile, a former NDC MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, has explained that the party’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gymafi, erred when he claimed that the Electoral EC was helping the NPP slip an unauthorized voter onto the voter list for Assin North.
Speaking on Accra-based Asaase Radio, he stated that although Sammy Gyamfi was relying on practice, that cannot supersede the law, and that the EC’s reading of the provision appeared to be accurate.
Mr Inusah also revealed that the NDC’s attention was drawn to the nomination form, which, upon reading the declaration, does not suggest that the nominated candidate must be a registered voter from the constituency.
“When you read the declaration on the form, it doesn’t seem to suggest that the candidate who is being nominated should be a registered candidate from the constituency,” Mr Inusah Fuseini said.
EC response
Sammy Gyamfi had claimed that the nomination form for the Assin North by-election requires candidates to be registered voters in the constituency.
Responding to his accusations, the EC urged him to prioritise campaigning in the upcoming by-election rather than attacking the Commission.
The EC reiterated that, according to Article 94 of the 1992 Constitution, a person qualifies to contest as a parliamentary candidate if he is a registered voter, at least 21 years old, and either hails from, or has resided in the constituency for a total of five years within the last ten years preceding the election.
It further dismissed Mr Gyamfi’s claim that it should also consider the provisions of CI 127, particularly the nomination form, when determining a candidate’s eligibility.
It clarified that the nomination form only requires the individuals nominating a candidate to be registered voters in the constituency, and not the candidate themselves.
The EC highlighted the case of the NDC candidate in the recent Kumawu constituency by-election, Mr Kwasi Amankwaa, who is not a registered voter in Kumawu but contested because he hails from there.
The EC called on Sammy Gyamfi to exercise maturity, decorum and truthfulness in his discussions concerning the Commission.
It also asked Ghanaians to ignore the ‘baseless and unfounded’ allegations of Sammy Gyamfi.
“Over the years, Sammy Gyamfi and his party have put out false claims aimed at maligning the integrity of the EC. This was evident in their petition to the Supreme Court after the 2020 Elections alleging that they had won the Elections. It is well known that they could not provide evidence in Court to support their allegations,” it said.
“This current allegation is no different. It is baseless and unfounded and a figment of the imagination of the National Communication Officer. We call on all well-meaning Ghanaians to ignore it. Ghana’s democracy has come of age and we call on Sammy Gyamfi to exercise maturity, decorum and truth in his discussions on the EC. We urge him to go out and campaign and leave the EC alone,” the EC said.
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