IMANI-Africa’s President, Franklin Cudjoe, has forewarned the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be wary of the upcoming elections, especially regarding the outcome of the Guan parliamentary polls.
He says with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) fully aware of the constituency being a stronghold of the NDC, they might turn around to raise legal issues to discredit the outcome if it happens that the NDC wins that seat in the December 2024 polls.
He says the issues surrounding the creation of the Guan constituency may be used by the party to deny the looming victory of the opposition if they do not take care.
“The NDC must be careful because I understand it’s NDC’s stronghold. I have told Fred Agbenyo, you will be sorry – you may win that seat and the NPP will come back quietly and say the processes leading to the creation of this whole thing, in itself caused a problem and you will lose the seat,” he said on Accra-based JoyNews Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
Franklin Cudjoe’s assertion comes on the back of a tussle between himself and the Electoral Commission over who is to be blamed for the residents’ of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi and Lipke (SALL) inability to vote in the 2020 Parliamentary elections.
After debunking Mr. Cudjoe’s assertion in a Tuesday, May 14, 2024 statement, the Electoral Commission has asked the IMANI boss to blame Parliament for what happened instead of the Commission.
“If you want someone to blame for that process, [it should be] the parliament. The time the Parliament began the process of creating the LI that created Guan, they should have known that it wasn’t possible that a constituency would be created for them to vote in the Parliamentary election,” Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, a Deputy Commissioner of the EC had said.
The Commission had, in its statement described the allegations as “false and without basis.”
“The Commission never disenfranchised the good people of the newly created Guan Constituency. It is not in our interest to do so,” portions of the statement read.
The EC clarified that it adhered to all legal procedures in the creation of the newly established Guan Constituency and did not disenfranchise any residents in the process.
“It is unfortunate that IMANI continues to peddle falsehood and untruths about the Commission at every point and turn. His [Franklin Cudjoe’s] narrative that the Commission disenfranchised the people of SALL, now the Guan Constituency, is FALSE. We urge the public to verify information put out by IMANI, with the Commission for the truth and the facts.”
But Franklin Cudjoe insists the constituency exists as a trap for the NPP to deny the opposition victory after the polls.
“The NDC should listen and listen very clearly, they should talk to the big lawyers in the party. I have spoken to a lot of them, I have spoken to lawyers outside – this is a big trap, they should be careful.
“When they even created the so-called district, they said SALL, in the schedule, they said SALL Traditional Areas. The other districts they created were named properly so, districts – but these people said SALL Traditional Areas.
“It means that as we speak, that C.I. has not been amended and the EC is going on telling people, giving assurances. … anything, any of the frontlines of the EC tell me henceforth, I don’t trust them, they disenfranchised SALL,” Mr Cudjoe argued.
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