The opposition New Patriotic Party has always used violence as a weapon to prosecute its electoral agenda in the Ashanti Region, Deputy Minister of Defence Kenneth Adjei has said.

Addressing party faithful in Kumasi on Saturday October 15 as the party launched its campaign to win 1 million votes in the Ashanti Region in the 2016 polls, Mr Adjei said the NPP was plotting to intimidate members of the NDC before and on voting day to keep the governing party’s figures down in the region, widely regarded as an opposition stronghold.

He stated: “You all know that here in Kumasi they (NPP) resort to violence when it comes to elections. For this year’s elections, our president has tasked the military and police to ensure everyone is protected from danger. So I urge you that once the time is due, no one should remain indoors; everyone should go out and vote.”

But reacting to the comments of the deputy minister, the General Secretary of the NPP in the Ashanti Region, Sam Pyne, rejected the allegation, saying with the NPP commanding most of the votes in the region it would make no sense to want to visit mayhem and keep people away from polling stations.

He added that the history of electoral violence in the region weighed against the NDC which, in 2012, following the introduction of biometric voter registration and voting, formed a task force to raid the office of the Electoral Commission in Kumasi, destroying equipment and assaulting some individuals.

Mr Pyne also accused Ashanti Regional Minister Alexander Ackon of urging NDC supporters, during a rally in the Ahafo Ano South East constituency two weeks ago, not to be afraid to attack any supporter of the NPP, since the party would arrange bail for them should they be arrested.

“I believe the National Peace Council, civil society bodies, and men of God are listening. We will remain vigilant but if it is a plot they have hatched in the Ashanti Region, it will not materialise,” assured Mr Pyne in an interview with Nana Ama Agyarko on Accra News on Saturday October 15.

“There is no tension [in the Ashanti Region],” added Mr Pyne, assuring: “The 600,000 votes they (NDC) obtained in 2012, they will not get that this year. If they get more than 300,000 [votes], that will be a miracle. There is no tension but if they are the ones going to bring violence, then they should be careful.”