Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader, has rejected claims by Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was trying to blackmail the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and remove her from office.

According to him, the current row at the Electoral Commission (EC) is from the Commission’s own internal wrangling and has nothing to do with the NPP.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu refuted the claims when he spoke to journalists in Parliament over certain comments attributed to Mr Haruna Iddrisu.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) recently held a press conference at its party headquarters which touched on certain pressing national issues among them being the allegation that the NPP is behind the petition by some concerned workers of the EC to impeach the Chairperson, Mrs Charlotte Osei.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu cited, for example, that some few weeks ago the EC Chairperson, acting on the instructions of the Economic and Organised Crime Office, suspended one of the Deputy Commissioners, Georgina Opoku Amankwah, and Mr Kwaku Owusu Agyei-Larbi, the Chief Account, was asked to proceed on leave.

However, the two persons later resisted their suspension.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained that the current petition by some workers of the EC for the Chairperson to be impeached is as a result of her attempt to suspend some officials at the Commission, adding; “that is what is playing out there in the media.”

He said the signs on the wall were clear when the EC officials appeared before the Finance Committee of Parliament for their budget review without the Chairperson.

He said there was bad blood between the Chairperson and some of the Deputy Commissioners and that he was not surprised at the current turn of events at the Commission.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said as a result of the current internal wrangling at the Commission certain non-election related matters that should be attended to such as the refurbishment of stocks of biometric equipment and verification machines were now on hold.

He said the IT Department of the Commission, which the officials should be attending to in readiness for the 2018 District Assemblies Elections and referendums in some of the regions had been shelved.

He said certain contractors of the EC had also not been paid because claims had not been submitted to the House as a result of those internal.