Residents of Adaklu are massing up at the Adaklu Waya police station to protest against the moving of ballot boxes containing ballot papers from yesterday’s special voting exercise to Ho.
According to the residents most of whom are NDC sympathizers, they picked information that the Regional Director of the EC and his men are coming to move the ballot boxes to Ho to which they are against.
Adaklu Constituency NDC Secretary Charles Agbesi told Starr News Faisal Abdul-Iddrisu “this afternoon we received information from the EC’s office that the Ho municipal police commander called to inform her about their intention to move the special voting ballots to Ho for safekeeping, to the police armory, that she was informing us.”
He said that “we were taken aback because these materials were brought here a few days earlier than the special voting and nothing happened. We all came here to check and after that special voting went on. So, we don’t understand why they have now decided to move it.”
“In any case, this is a police station and we are of the view that as a party we are not comfortable with that arrangement. Because these are Adaklu ballots, we are better able to protect our ballots here than it being moved to Ho. That is why we are massing up here to protect the ballots which is our civil right.”
On the probability of the station not well equipped to protect the ballots, hence the decision to move, he rebutted “not at all, the issue is that this is an election and political parties are major stakeholders in this. And that is why even at the polling station we are allowed to put our agent there. Even before these materials were brought here, we came here to put our seals here. We think it is safer here, we have police that has been protecting it for a very long time.”
“We’ve held assembly elections and all that so we don’t understand this last-minute arrangement that they want to move the ballots and other materials to Ho, we are not comfortable.”
Mr Agbesi insisted “we as a constituency are unable to protect the ballots in Ho when it is moved. So that is why we are massing up here to ensure that the ballots are protected. We don’t want the materials to be moved, they should be here until it is counted, it is our ballots.”
As to what would happen if the EC and police insisted on moving the ballots, he maintained that “they cannot insist because we have made our position known to the EC that as a political party we are not comfortable and we will not allow that. But if they insist which I know they will not do, when we get to the river we will cross. But we are only here protecting our ballots.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
