AUCC student arrested for election fraud

The spate of election fraud in students politics rose to a new level at the just ended Private Universities Students' Association of Ghana (PUSAG) Congress held at the Kessben University College, Kuntenase in the Ashanti Region. The portfolios contested were the following; National President, General Secretary, Media Relations Officer, International Relations Officer, Women’s Commissioner. The elections was froth with irregularities commination in large and impossible over voting. The congress in question saw the election of the National President, General Secretary, Media Relations Officer, International Relations Officer, and Women’s Commissioner of the association. A total of 291 delegates presented by 17 Private Universities were called and counted to vote by the Chief Operation Officer of PUSAG, Frank Ahobah. Delegates voted for their preferred candidates in a sequential manner when called; one after another. The same Electoral College was used to conduct the elections for all the National Portfolios being contested namely; President, General Secretary, Media Relations Officer (MRO), Women's Commissioner (WOCOM) and International Relations Director (IRD). At the end of the polls, the MRO, and IRD portfolios elections results all recorded 291 total votes cast. That of General Secretary was 292; indicating an over-voting of 1 ballots. The total votes count for the women’s commissioner surprisingly was 353, indicating an over-voting 62 ballots. The shocker was the Presidential results which recorded a total vote count of 804; indicating an over-voting of 513 ballots. Even the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) Congress held at Winneba, that involved in all universities both private and public, recorded a total vote cast of 710. Mathew Ziem who was a delegate presented by the African University College of Communications (AUCC) at the congress to vote was caught during the election, attempting to stuff the presidential ballot box with several tomb printed ballots in favour of the declared winner of the PUSAG Presidential Elections. He was arrested by the Police manning the polling and detained at the Kuntenase District Police Station. According to the Station Master at the Kuntenase Police Station, they retrieved 56 tomb printed ballots in favor of George Arthur Sackey, the declared winner of the PUSAG Presidential Elections on Mathew Ziem upon his arrest. It was therefore not surprising that, 291 delegates present and voting was able to produce 353 ballots in the case of a Women's Commissioner and a whooping 804 ballots for the Presidential race. Mathew Ziem has later granted bail and ask to report the following week after Shamsu Alhassan, the incumbent PUSAG who supervised the fraudulent election stood in as surety for him.