Accra Mayor, Michael Kpakpo Allotey, has denied allegations that he is inducing voters in the ongoing Ablekuma North election rerun at 19 polling stations.
Allotey, who calls himself “Mayor of the Street,” has been accused by some voters of inducing them to vote for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Ewurabena Aubynn.
Onua News cameras captured visuals of voters being handed GHC100 notes at the Church of Pentecost, North Odorkor 2, polling station.
The Mayor, speaking with Onua News’ Akua Sarpomaa on Onua FM, admitted to giving out money to people. However, he explained that the money was given to his team to buy porridge and move into people’s homes to convince them to come out to vote.
He said: “You see a lot of people here because I’m Mayor of the street.”
According to him, he has to motivate people to convince the electorates to come out to vote because “some of the people are disappointed because of the bad governance they had endured for the past 8 years.”
When asked about his motivation to the people, he said “I came here purposely to do that.”
But he denied inducing people for votes, explaining that: “I haven’t shared money. The people I brought to go out to people’s homes to bring them out to vote are the ones I gave GHC20.00 to buy porridge to go and bring the people out from their homes.”
The Electoral Commission (EC) is conducting a rerun in 19 polling stations in the Ablekuma North constituency due to issues with the initial election results.
The EC discovered that the scanned results used for collation in these 19 stations weren’t verified by the Presiding Officers, raising concerns about their authenticity.
This decision follows a dispute between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the election outcome.
The NDC called for a rerun in 37 polling stations, while the NPP insisted that only three stations’ results were outstanding. But, the EC, after arriving at a compromise with the parties, decided to conduct the election again for 19 polling stations whose results couldn’t be authenticated.
Although the NPP officially announced a boycott of the rerun, its candidate, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyie, kept campaigning and opposed the decision to opt out of the polls.
She filed an injunction to stop the EC from organising the election, claiming it was unnecessary since her party had won the December 2024 edition, but was dismissed by the court.
With 6,839 voters expected, the rerun aims to resolve the impasse and declare a winner for the constituency.
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