Politics of Saturday, 28 September 2019

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

NPP Primaries: Confusion at Amasaman over disqualified candidate, polls suspended

Canopies being taken down after delegates were dispersed Canopies being taken down after delegates were dispersed

The New Patriotic Party's parliamentary primary scheduled to take place in the Amasaman Constituency is in limbo.

Confusion broke earlier at the Amasaman M/A School park, Saturday morning, where several delegates gathered to cast their votes to elect a parliamentary candidate to represent the party in the constituency.

This came after a disqualified candidate, Rockson Adu Boahen, secured a last minute interlocutory injunction from the Human Rights high court Friday, to halt the elections till further notice.

Addressing the media on the development, Constituency Chairman, Michael Asante, said he had reason to call off the polls after receiving a copy of the injunction while on his way to the polling center to oversee the day’s activities.

Officials of the Electoral Commission, who noted they were oblivious of any such development insisted they were setting up to hold the polls till they received any such information from their heads to reflect the change.

A position that left delegates ‘hanging’ for some time. Police personnel at the premises however intervened to resolve the issue.

Speaking to the media, Supretendant Fredrick Kojo-Asare Mensah. Amassaman District Police Commander said,

‘We’ve put security measures in place to make sure that nothing untoward will happen but for now, the various contestants have spoken to their various supporters for now so there’s calm at the moment. We will stay here till there’s everyone out of the place but we know the election will be off till further notice. We don’t know when they’ll come back but per the injunction, the elections are not coming off”.

Meanwhile, the constituency, which is one of some orphan constituencies of the NPP will not be voting till the issues regarding the disqualified candidate are resolved and a new date is set for voting.

At Amasaman, the Municipal Chief Executive, Clement Wilkinson, Nana Oye Coffie Ago, Isaac Kwaku Mintah Sackey and Kwasi Afrifa Mensah are contesting to represent the party in parliament.


a copy of the the high court injunction secured by Mr Adu Boahen