NPP’s desire is to ruin Afari-Gyan’s reputation - Quashigah

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Keta Constituency, Richard Quashigah, has chided the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), explaining that since they (NPP) know their case at the Supreme Court over results of the 2012 elections has collapsed the party has resorted to attacking the personality of Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.

“If in your parochial interest, you want to run down a colossus like Dr Afari-Gyan…it is a selfish desire,” he said during a discussion on TV3’s weekend news analysis programme Headlines.

“[NPP’s] case has collapsed like a pack of cards,” he stressed.

He observed that the Electoral Commission (EC) did not impress upon all voters to go through full registration, explaining that apart from amputees, fishermen also had challenges with thumb verification as a result of the nature of their work.

However, the NPP, he said, are painting the EC in a bad light, making it look as if it made an egregious mistake in undertaking Face Only (FO) verification for some voters.

“Don’t run the reputation of Dr Afari-Gyan from hero to zero,” he advised. Communications Director for the Progressive People's Party (PPP), William Doworkpor, who was also on the programme, expressed happiness over the petitioners' suit against the EC, faulting the EC for ignoring PPP's call for reforms immediately after the 2012 elections.

"I am looking for a very consequential ruling and I am looking at it affecting the way we can organised elections in the future," he said.