The National Democratic Congress in the Eastern Region has accused the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Madam Jean Mensa for deliberatively messing up the district level election in some constituencies within the region.
In a statement released on Tuesday, December 19 2023, the Eastern Regional Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Jamal Konneh argued that even though the district level election is not partisan in nature, the party consider itself as a key stakeholder in election in the country hence whatever bad decision the Electoral Commission takes may have a ‘trickle-down’ effect on the 2024 elections.
According to Mr Konney, only sixteen districts out of the thirty three districts in the Eastern Region are having their elections today, a situation the party in the region consider as very unfortunate.
Explaining the various issues that have compounded the Electoral Commission failure to conduct the district level elections in about seventeen district in the region, Mr Konney attributed the situation to the lack of responsibility by the Electoral Commission.
According to him, while the Electoral Commission materials for the polls arrived very late in some Constituency in the region, several constituencies in the region did not receive their materials even before the Electoral Commission call-off the election in the respective Constituencies.
“In a constituency like Akuaprn North, the materials arrived, but you could see that the work was abysmally and incompletely done. So, the materials were sent back to Accra. As of 10:30 a.m., ballot papers for districts such as Upper Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo, Kwahu South, Birem Central, and Asene-Manso-Akroso constituencies had not arrived either at the regional or district offices. In some cases, the materials got to the regional office around 9 am. The disrespect the Jean Mensah led EC is showing to Ghanaians is what is annoying. At what point did she and her team realize the elections could not take place in some constituencies?”
Jamal Konney
Mr Konney further questioned why the Electoral Commission failed to release an official statement to communicate to the respective constituencies on the late arrival of materials meant for the election.
NDC Demands Answers To the Delay Of Distribution Of Electoral Materials
Moreover, the opposition National Democratic Congress Eastern Regional General Secretary, Jamal Konneh thus called on the Electoral Commission to immediately provide answers to it failure to distribute the electoral materials to the affected seventeen constituencies in the Eastern Region.
According to him, information the party has gathered indicates that most of the ballot papers are yet to be printed as of today, 19th December, 2023, hence the need for the Electoral Commission to give clarity in such a development.
“The lady Jean Mensah doesn’t listen. She is not ready to learn, and not ready to resign too. And what is worrying is that she doesn’t care about the cost the candidates are incurring. On the printing of the ballot papers, we would like to know which print houses are doing the printing, how they secured the contract, and who owns those print houses?? We are asking these questions because there could be procurement breaches, which might have led to the selection of unqualified companies securing the print contract”.
Jamal Konney
Commenting on the Electoral Commission decision to postpone the district level elections to the affected constituencies both in the Eastern and Ashanti Region on Thursday, December 21 2023, Mr Konney admonished the Electoral Commission to avoid the repetition of such mistakes in the 2024 general elections
He stressed that the National Democratic Congress in the Eastern Region would not countenance such conduct on the part of the Electoral Commission in the 2024 general elections.
READ ALSO: EC Postpones District-Level Elections In Some Areas
