Oti referendum: Investigate malpractices - Kofi Adams charges EC

Former National Organiser of the opposition NDC, Kofi Adams has charged the Electoral Commissioner, Jean Mensah to take keen interest in investigating the videos making rounds on social media indicating gross election malpractices in the referendum.

Mr Adams who was addressing journalists at the just ended referendum to create Oti region said, "It’s unfortunate such practices went on and it must interest the electoral commission boss to find out what went wrong".

In some widely circulated videos, persons are seen thumb printing multiple ballot papers.

In another video, a young man is seen taking close to 5 minutes in the voting screen for a process which should last for less than a minute and he’s seen thumb printing multiple times.

In some instances, the voter turnout in most polling centres recorded almost 100 per cent while the Biometric verification device records less than half of the persons on the voter register and the barcodes left undestroyed.

The referendum ended with overwhelming turn up of 88.31% and 98.64% Yes endorsement as declared by the Electoral Commission's regional returning officer Mr Joseph Kodua after 14 hours of end of polls on Thursday 27 December, 2018.

Addressing the media, the Minister for Regional Re-organization, Dan Botwey expressed joy over the success of the elections but was optimistic even those who voted ‘No’ equally expressed their democratic right but won't change what the final outcome of a New Oti region.

"Those who voted No or chose not to vote at all have exercised their democratic rights because even in the plebiscite that decided the fate of Ghana, not everyone voted Yes or participated in it but the end of the matter is that, they're today part of Ghana," he stressed.

He said the president is committed in fulfilling his promises for which the creation of a new region has materialised.

"The next thing for us is go speedily bring development to this new region," he affirmed.