The Northern Regional Secretariat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has clapped back at the Electoral Commission’s controversial deputy Chairperson, Bossman Asare after he claimed that there was only one case of over-voting in the 2020 elections in the Parliamentary election at Savelugu.
In a statement signed by the party’s representative, King Salam RS, Bossman Asare’s claim was dismissed as a disgraceful attempt to water down the EC’s “shameful performance” in the 2020 elections and the dent that its image has suffered after former President Mahama said the ballot boxes had been stuffed with some one million fake ballot papers.
“We ordinarily will not have given any response, but for the fact that the Savelugu Parliamentary Elections are a subject of an Election Petition at the High Court in Tamale, and our silence over this palpable untruth will further the ends that Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare are out to serve, thus misleading the unsuspecting public.
“In their haste to water down the effect of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama’s criticism of their stewardship over the 2020 elections, they embarrassed themselves further by obviously stating another untruth by claims of over-voting incident having been recorded only in the case of Savelugu Parliamentary Elections of all the over 3,800 polling stations, Bossman Asare emphasized over-voting of only one vote, without stating which polling station it occurred and what specific action was taken by his outfit,” the NDC said.
According to them, they are convinced that the Jean Mensah, Bossman Asare EC are deliberately seeking to twist the facts of an incident at Savelugu in which a staff of the EC stuffed the ballot box there with a ballot paper thumb-printed for NPP in the presidential elections as a way of parrying former President Mahama’s statement.
The party points out that contrary to Bossman Asare’s claim that the incident had occurred in respect of the Parliamentary election, it had been in the presidential.
“Ismail Quarshie was arrested, charged and convicted by a competent court of jurisdiction on his own pleading. Following disagreements between the NPP and the NDC over the incident the ballot boxes for kadia were taken to the Northern Regional Police Command where the counting was done,” the NDC reiterated.
The statement added that Bossman Asare’s claims about the Savelugu Parliamentary election are not even supported by the Northern Regional and Savelugu District Offices of the Electoral Commission.
“We end by calling on Bossman Asare to immediately retract his false claims and apologize to the people of Ghana in whose interests he’s supposed to be working,” the NDC stated.