The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Northern Regional Secretariat has responded to the issue of over-voting at the Salvelugu Constituency in the Northern Region.
According to the NDC, the issue of overvoting actually happened with the Presidential elections in Savelugu contrary to the claim by the Deputy Electoral Commissioner, Bossman Asare that the incident happened with the Parliamentary ballots.
During a Press Conference by the Electoral Commission (EC) addressed by Bossman Asare to respond to allegations by former President John Mahama on printing of extra 1million ballots, he stated that the 2020 General Election ended with only one case of over-voting in Savelugu Constituency.
“Nationwide, we had no issue of over-voting in all the 38,622 polling stations except in Savelugu in the Parliamentary Election where there was one and I repeat one over-voting,” he emphasized.
However, in a statement sighted by Starrfm.com.gh and signed by the Northern Regional Secretary for the NDC, King Salam said that the EC’s claims on Savelugu are meant to twist the facts on what really happened.
“We are convinced that the Jean Mensah, Bossman Asare EC are deliberately seeking to twist the facts of the Savelugu incident to serve the interest of their collaborators the NPP. After all, at all material times, the facts as regards the Kadia polling station incident of over voting in the Savelugu Constituency had to do with Presidential elections and not Parliamentary elections as Bossman Asare will want the unsuspecting public to believe,” the NDC stated.
Below is the full statement from the Northern Regional Branch of the NDC
For Immediate Release:
Press release on Jean Mensah, Bossman Asare led ECs blunder, claims of over voting in Savelugu Parliamentary Elections.
The attention of the Northern Regional Secretariat of the NDC has been drawn to a video circulating on social media on which Bossman Asare is heard claiming a case of over voting in Savelugu Parliamentary elections and we wish to respond as follows.
Knowing very well, how inconsistent and mathematically deficient Electoral Commission’s Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare have been at the EC so far, the news of their blunder comes to us as no surprise at all. 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.
We are convinced that the Jean Mensah, Bossman Asare EC are deliberately seeking to twist the facts of the Savelugu incident to serve the interest of their collaborators the NPP. After all, at all material times, the facts as regards the Kadia polling station incident of over voting in the Savelugu Constituency had to do with presidential elections and not Parliamentary elections as Bossman Asare will want the unsuspecting public to believe.
The facts:
The ECs own official, Ismael Quarshie a presidential ballots issuer at the Kadia Polling station in the Savelugu Constituency at the close of polls at 5:00pm on 7th December 2020 took a sheet of the Presidential ballot thumb printed and dropped same in the ballot box, his action was challenged by the NDC agent since he was not a registered voter at the Kadia polling station, following which the incident was reported to the District Electoral Officer who subsequently reported the official’s action to the police. 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 Presidential votes counted revealed an over voting of one vote confirming Ismail Quashie’s action.
The facts above are well known to the Electoral Commission since their Regional and District Officials were active participants throughout these processes.
Finally, it’s a well-known fact that the returning officers for Parliamentary Elections are at the District level, and the facts at the Northern Regional and Savelugu District Offices of the Electoral Commission does not support what Bossman Asare wants the whole world to believe.
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.
Signed:
King Salam
Regional Secretary
