The brawl at an election to choose a presiding member for the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) may have been caused by disagreements over seemingly last-minute rule changes instituted by the Electoral Commission.
The two main contestants, Nana Kofi Senya and Nana Adumhene both failed to secure the two-thirds majority votes required by Ghanaian law after five rounds of voting and the assembly members were forced to abandon the process.
The election which was supervised by the Deputy Ashanti Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Lawrence Sarpong, proceeded peacefully until an assembly member who was alleging the process was being tampered with, demanded to know how many ballot papers had been printed.
Explaining what led to the fracas on Eyewitness News, the Assemblyman for the Nhyiaeso electoral area, Abraham Boadi said the candidates were informed of a change to the system of the elections.
Instead of the number system that was used previously, pictures would be used to identify candidates in this instance.
But Mr. Boadi stated that some of the candidates were not made aware of the changes that had been made to the process ahead of time.
“They didn’t inform the candidate [ahead of time], the electorate was not aware. They just inform [impromptu] us and they want to start doing the election and we are saying no, that is wrong. We should know the number of ballot papers you are printing.”
This led to the confrontation between sympathizers of the two candidates; the supporters of Kofi Senya demanding to know the number of ballot papers printed and the supporters of Nana Adumhene claiming the other side did not have the authority of question the EC.
Also speaking on Eyewitness News, a KMA member, Francis Dodovi reiterated the points of the supporters of Nana Adumhene.
“His [Senya] guy started making noise, I said he has no right, he has no authority to come and instruct any electoral officer here. If he has any difficulty, he should draw the attention of the secretary of the assembly and the issue was that we should have a polling agent.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana