The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is under fire in the Northern Ghana for allegedly using sewing machines and bicycles to lure voters for its preferred candidates in the three northern regions.

“Our northern region bureau scouts spotted the bicycles at the Tamale Municipal Assembly together with the sewing machines which were later transported to Bongo in the Upper East Region”, the private Independent newspaper reports.

Resident of Tamale who saw the items have accused the government party of flouting the law by using inducements to get the electorate to vote for the party’s preferred candidates, the paper stated.

“Our investigations here in Accra have confirmed that the items – 200 sewing machines and 500 bicycles were transported from Accra and escorted by a Nissan Patrol Pick-Up with registration number GT 445 D to the Northern Region on the 23rd of July 2002, a week to the date of the last date for the just-ended election which was rescheduled to last Tuesday.

It was also established that the items passed through a prominent lady who lives near the Police Station off Spintex Road at Baatsona, a suburb of the capital Accra. The lady (name withheld) also works at the Castle).

Opinion leaders and other commentators in the Northern Region are fuming with rage over the issue which is viewed as an attempt by the NPP to shore up its image following the untimely death of the late Ya-Na under tragic circumstances earlier this year.”

Although the election was supposed to be non-partisan, “The Independent” observed in the build-up to the election that agents of political parties were all over the three northern regions, maneuvering to woo the electorate to vote for candidates of their choice.

“In a telephone chat with Mr. Antwi Agyei, the Director of Administration at the NPP Headquarters yesterday, he could neither confirm nor deny the allegation when he told our reporter, he has no idea of such items sent up North and he is not sure the party has any car by that number (GT 445 D).”

With the electorate in the three northern regions still grappling with the gravity of conflicts that have rocked the area, the paper says its investigations have revealed that voters in those regions were virtually coaxed into voting with plentiful supply of material incentives in last Tuesday’s district and unit level elections.

“According to an opinion leader in Tamale, they were instructed by agents of political parties to vote for certain people whose political leanings were unknown by people in their respective localities.

Other sources disclosed that no single party could be behind the items transported up North”. “All political parties are taking advantage of the current polarized state of the three northern regions to gain visibility, and the local government elections offered a fertile platform for the parties to probably convince the people that they sympathise with them in their dire situation,” an opinions leader intimated to the paper.

“On the other hand, it could be possible for the other parties to struggle within their meager resources to take advantage of the district assembly elections in the three northern regions to prepare the ground for the 2004 elections by giving out such goodies,” another told the paper.

The three northern regions have in recent times, been grounds for intense fighting, in some cases with gruesome outcomes, as a result of ethnic and chieftaincy disputes.” The Yendi district is currently under military surveillance following the murder of the Overlord of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II, on March 27 this year. There were recently reported skirmishes in the Nanumba District where warring factions have begun flexing their muscles in a protracted skin dispute.

The security agencies, last week, uncovered a cache of arms in Bimbilla, a major town in the Nanumba district. Wa, the Upper West Regional capital is also distending with the potential explosion of chieftaincy dispute, which constant surveillance of state security agencies has not been able to completely mollify.

The ruling party has however refuted the allegations.