Pressure is mounting on the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah to change the venue of the upcoming 2022 Annual Delegates’ Conference of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti region.
As head of the Regional Elections Committee, Mr Osei Mensah has chosen his official residence at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council as the venue to host the conference, in which new officers would be elected to man the affairs party at the regional level for the next four years because it is the only place where he “can guarantee the security of the process.”
According to him, some persons have decided to foment trouble on the day, making that security zone the only venue that is apt for the event.
But many stakeholders in the party have expressed worry over the use of that exclusive government space for a party event; some have suggested that the proposed use of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council as the venue for the voting is part of a grand scheme to rig the elections in favour of the incumbent regional chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako.
Speaking with journalists at a press conference today, Spokesperson for the Odeneho Kwaku Appiah campaign, Keskine Owusu Poku said, “it puts the image of the party into disrepute and it ridicules the whole concept. No right thinker will accept the Minister’s decision.”
“If security is his only reason, then I guess the right place to conduct the polls is the Central Command of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ouaddarra Barracks or the Regional Police Headquarters because that is where absolute security can be assured; the election would be guarded by soldiers, so the minister could rest assured that nothing untoward would happen”, he said.
Other members of the public have also questioned the motives of the ruling party, in choosing that venue for their event at the expense of the taxpayer, citing abuse of incumbency.
Government business is expected to go on at the same premises where the minister has chosen for the party event on Friday, 27 May 2022; this means that the state would be shortchanged if the event is allowed to go at the venue.
In another development, nine aspirants for various positions have petitioned the General Secretary of the party to immediately release the album for the elections for independent verification; they say the delay in releasing the document smacks of a ploy to breach the authenticity of the album to favour certain candidates.
“We need to get the album, look through it and verify to get everything right. This exercise will take us not less than two days so it will be advisable if the polls could be done on Sunday instead of Friday”; Keskine Owusu Poku warned that” other options are available to us, should the General Secretary ignore the petition; we have decided to exhaust the reliefs provided by the party because we are law-abiding”.
