Arrest West Akim MCE - NDC

Asamankese (E/R), Dec. 25, GNA - The Lower West Akim Constituency branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on the Police to arrest and prosecute Mr Kwabena Sintim-Aboagye, West Akim Municipal Chief Executive, for engaging in multiple voting on the special voting day on Tuesday.

The branch said it had information to the effect that Mr. Sintim-Aboagye voted at Asamankese in the Lower West Akim Constituency during the special voting day and then travelled to Adeiso in the Upper West Akim Constituency where he voted again.

The branch made its position known at a press conference organized on Wednesday at Asamankese, which was addressed by Mr Seth Okyere, the Parliamentary candidate of the party for the Lower West Akim Constituency for the 2008 elections, in the company of executives of the party for both Upper and Lower West Akim constituencies. He said he, in the company of the Lower West Akim Constituency Chairman of the Party, Mr Abi-Zayid Tei Addo, went to see Mr Salas Mensah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper West Akim who was attending the West Akim Municipal Assembly meeting at Asamankese. Mr Okyere said in their presence Mr Mensah called one of the party agents at Adeiso observing the special voting exercise to find out how the voting was going.

He said he informed Mr Mensah that the MCE had been there to cast his vote.

Mr Okyere said Mr Mensah then switched his mobile phone on loud speaker for them to also hear and enquired again from the agent and he repeated that the MCE visited the Adeiso special polling station and voted.

Mr Okyere said Mr Mensah then called the Presiding officer of the polling station at Adeiso, one Mr Abeka and asked him if the MCE had been there and he replied in the affirmative and he further enquired from him what he came there to do and he replied that he came to observe the polls and cast his vote.

He said they then called their agent at Asamankese special polling station who also confirmed to them that Mr Sintim Aboagye had voted at Asamankese also and so the party later collected the voter's registration list of the Asamankese Centre and found the name of Mr Sintim- Aboagye on that list and having been ticked as voted. Mr Okyere said an attempt by the party agents to get the voter's list for the Adeiso Centre from the Electoral Commission (EC) was resisted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) agents and officials at the station.

He said the NDC had reasons to believe that there had been multiple voting during the special voting exercise by agents of the NPP and, therefore, called on the EC to nullify the results of the special voting exercise in both the Upper West Akim and the Lower West Akim Constituencies.

The NDC, therefore, demanded that the EC provide them with the list of all the people who took part in the special voting exercise in the Upper and Lower West Akim Constituencies to enable the party to check those names against the voters' registers that would be used in the two constituencies on December 28.

The party said it noticed some suspicious characters loitering around the polling stations at Asamankese during the special voting exercise and had received information that they were part of a rigging plan during the December 28 polls.

Meanwhile the Asamankese Police has confirmed that the NDC has reported the multiple voting of the MCE to them and had initiated an investigation into the issue.