The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Western Region, Okatakyie Afrifa has alleged that members of the governing National Democratic Congress(NDC) have gained access into the camp of the NPP.
Afrifa said the NDC members infiltrated the camp of the NPP during the National Delegates Congress which elected Nana Akufo-Addo as flagbearer.
According to him, some of the agents suspected to be members of the governing NDC concealed their identity and got involved in the NPP’s congress and also voted recklessly which resulted in the high number of rejected ballots.
Records showed that about 15,000 delegates out of the 141,000 did not participate in the NPP’s October 18 Congress.
[contextly_sidebar id=”WGdRr1dNnHreZJZ6FwbHodZ7HKBwxswp”]He also alleged that “all the training and strategies that we will give them, they [NDC] will know and they can send it to their party. This means that they will serve as spies among us so if we are not careful it will cause us much in the [2016] elections.”
He urged the party to as a matter of urgency probe the reasons for the low turnout at the NPP congress and fish out the culprits.
Speaking to Citi News, Okatakyie Afrifa affectionately called OKT argued that internal party elections in the various constituencies shouldn’t have recorded such a low turnout.
He said; “the euphoria for our expanded electoral college and everything was there, there was transport provided in nearly all the constituencies so why the low turnout? I think the party must take it seriously to investigate all constituency executives and polling agents who absented themselves on the day of the just ended election whether they are real NPP members. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“At least the turnout should be 85% but having as low as 38%, 48% in some constituencies, we have to investigate why those low turnouts were recorded,” he proposed.
Some of the voters thumb-printed the elephant symbol rather than the three aspirants whose portraits were displayed on the ballot paper.
He also urged the party “to get the ballot papers from the EC and do thorough investigations to know truly if our people did not know how to vote.”
“I think that this was a test case for our victory in 2016 so these minuses should be investigated very well so that we can draw a good training manual for our polling station executives.”
Okatakyie Afrifa said he is collaborating with the party’s Western Region Electoral Research Officer to initiate the necessary investigations into the matter in the region.
Meanwhile, the Northern Regional Secretariat of the NPP has embarked on an exercise to educate members in the area on how to vote.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana