NPP Re-Runs Elections

THE OPPOSITION New Patriotic Party (NPP) has decided to run polls in two constituencies which were left out during the party’s parliamentary primaries on April 30, 2011, as a result of petitions filed.

Following the conduct of parliamentary primaries, three petitions were lodged with the National Appeals Board, headed by Ambassador Odoi Sykes, a former National Chairman of the party, after some misunderstanding ensued on the polling day. These were Okaikoi South, North Tongu and Atwima Kwanwoma.

A statement issued yesterday by the NPP General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John, said the National Appeals Board had decided that the elections in Atwima Kwanwuma and the North Tongu Constituencies in the Ashanti and Volta Region respectively be re-run.

It indicated that details of the re-run for the aforementioned constituencies would be announced in due course. The statement said in the case of Okaikoi South Constituency, the Appeals Committee did not uphold the petition against the election results but recommended that further checks and enquiries be made on a pending petition.

Vicky Bright had petitioned the NPP’s Appeals Committee after she had lost the Okaikoi South constituency parliamentary primaries to Ahmed Arthur, a former assemblyman for the area, calling for a re-run of the polls.

Her petition was however dismissed and thrown out by the committee chaired by Samuel Odoi-Sykes, a former Ghana High Commissioner to Canada. Vicky Bright, a former Deputy Minister at the Office of the President in the Kufuor administration, in her petition, complained that the bona fide members of the Electoral College were disenfranchised at the primaries and that the photo album compiled and used by the constituency was the wrong one.

However, DAILY GUIDE gathered that after a thorough and independent investigation into the issues raised by Vicky Bright, it became evident that her allegations were not true.

The paper has learnt that a petition has been sent to the Appeals Committee challenging the authenticity of Ahmed Arthur’s certificate which he apparently acquired from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).