Editorial News of Monday, 24 July 2000

Source: null

Electoral fraud syndicate busted

The Free Press writes that a syndicate, comprising National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists which deprived some New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters of their registration forms, meant for voter ID cards apparently disenfranchise them, has been busted by the police. The paper says under the pretext of forming an NPP Youth Club at Agbogba, an Accra suburb, and NDC youth, John Annan, 27 popularly known as Dornu, lured eleven NPP youth into surrendering their electoral registration forms to him.

According to the story, this turned out later to be a ploy to prevent them from checking their names when the register was re-opened for crosschecking of names. Harrison Thompson, spokesman for the victims is reported to have told the paper that shortly after registering, on the opening of the register, his landlord’s son, David Ayi, 30, approached him for the formation of an NPP youth club in the area, but said they could qualify only on surrendering their forms. ” Thompson according to Free Press went without his form to crosscheck on his name after efforts to retrieve it from Dornu proved futile but was surprised to realize that his name and number as well as those of his colleagues were already ticked. Dornu is reported to have admitted the act after initial denial and was sent to Madina Police Station for his statement.