A Deputy National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Eric Edem Agbana has charged his party’s branch executives and polling agents to work hard to secure a resounding victory for former President John Mahama in the upcoming polls.
He said despite the “wind of change blowing across the country to bring back the NDC back to power,” the party executives should not relent on their quest for an electoral victory because the masses have welcomed the policies lined up in the NDC ‘Peoples’ manifesto’. Instead, Agbana advised that they be vigilant as the elections draw closer, especially at polling stations where the manadate of the electorates must be protected.
“The fact that the masses are cheering us up for the people-centered policies in our manifesto does not mean we should relax. We have few weeks to a crucial election and this is the time we have to step up our vigilance because our opponents are bent on rigging the elections with the help of the EC,” Agbana said on Inside Politics on Power FM Monday evening.
“We should note that the EC is not on our side and that is why we have to be extra careful and be vigilant on elevction to ensure that their diabolical intentions don’t materialise,” added Agbana who is confident of an NDC victory in upcoming elections.
To him, “It is obvious John Mahama will win the election but we must not be complacent, until the last ballot is counted.”
NDC – EC Tussle
Agbana’s concerns come at a time his party has accused the Electoral Commission of printing of printing excess ballot papers than agreed ahead of the elections.
Despite the agreement with all political parties to print an extra 5 per cent of the ballot sheets for each polling station to deal with cases of spoilt ballots, the NDC said the electoral management body rather printed an excess of over 150,000 ballot papers which is beyond the conventional 5 percent required.
The NDC Campaign Manager, Professor Joshua Alabi, who disclosed this over the weekend said ” What is translated into is that more ballot papers are being printed in excess of the 5 per cent extra ballot papers required for each polling station” adding that they realized that from “the Ballot Statistics received from the Printing Houses.”
“We have analysed the figures from 13 regions and observed that there is an excess of over 150,000 ballot papers being printed beyond the extra 5% required,” Prof Alabi added.
The party has since accused Assembly Press, one of the companies contracted to print ballot papers, of secretly printing additional ballot papers in another location on the blind side of party agents monitoring the process.
NDC Director of Elections Elvis Afriyie Ankrah said at a media briefing last Sunday that they found out that the Assembly Press had printed additional ballot papers in another location at the premises of the agency on the blind side of the agents the political parties stationed at the premises.
“The NDC is completely appalled to the irregularity, particularly, as the MD of Assembly Press (who is an appointee of the President) was an Aspirant who contested in the NPP 2020 parliamentary primaries in the Nkawkaw Constituency and the Convener of the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA)- we all know that it’s a pressure group of the NPP- and he is the MD of the Assembly Press here,” the NDC press statement noted.
The EC is yet to speak on the allegations levelled against them.
Source: Ghana|Myxyzonline.com