Aggrieved electorates at Okaikwei South vent their spleen on police
Our album arrived late, Okaikwei South vice chairperson
The First Vice Chairperson of the New Patriotic Party in the Okaikwei South constituency, William Sangmor, has said he and other executives, along with the security officials dispatched to the area had a tough time controlling some electorates during the election of constituency executives on Thursday.
Explaining the incident to GhanaWeb, he said that after several attempts had been made to ensure that the voters register was properly put together, a glitch led to the 'removal' of the names of hundreds.
“We prepared the album roughly about two months ago to know that these are the delegates that would be part or form the album so that on the day of the election today, they are the people that are coming to vote.
“And so we’ve done that; we’ve gone around all the electoral areas to say that you are qualified to be the delegates and so you’re going to be part of the album together with the regional reps responsible for the album - we promised them,” he said.
Sangmor explained further that the rather short period of notice for the elections meant that they had very little time to even attempt rectifying the situation.
“We saw somebody posting on the platforms that the election is today but we were not aware and so quickly we had to make sure that we get the album. So, yesterday, it was around 4pm before we got the album and when we got it, we brought it to the constituency when the electorates realized that they’re not part of it.
"The names that were supposed to be in the album had been changed; about four hundred people had been changed and so those people started agitating yesterday and we had to speak to them that we’ll look at it,” he added.
Eventually, he added, it became quite difficult, even with the help of the police, to get the aggrieved electorates under control.
“But looking at the timeframe, there is nothing much that we can do. This morning, I started getting calls and when I came, it wasn’t easy – with the police, the national security, it wasn’t easy but when I came, I was able to calm them down and tell them that I’m making calls to see how we can solve this issue,” he said.
