The newly elected Parliamentary Candidate of the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Lawra Constituency in the 2016 elections, Bede Ziedeng, has dismissed allegations that he rigged the party’s recently held primary.
Mr. Ziedeng has been accused by an NDC youth group in the constituency of using his position as the party’s Deputy Director of Elections, to unduly influence the votes to his own advantage.
In an interview with Citi News however, Mr. Ziedeng said the allegations are baseless.
He argued that “the primary was contested at the constituency level and not the national level. I’m a Deputy Director of Election at the national level,” he said adding that “at the constituency level, there is a directorate of election and they conduct the election with the support of the constituency executives and I have no influence over that.”
Mr. Ziedeng explained that at the national level where he serves as Deputy Director of Elections “we deal with policy and we issue guidelines to the various regions and constituencies. Those guidelines cover all constituencies and regions, they are not specific to any region or constituency and they are applicable generally. And when we issue them, there are people who will carry them out at the regional level and constituency level.”
He added that “I’m saying that I did not interfere with anything at the constituency level but I exercised my right as a candidate. If there was anything and there was the need for me to exercise my right as a candidate, I did exercise that right. But I did not influence anything” he emphasized.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana