The Asuogyaman constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has purportedly taken over the office of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) transforming it into an “operations room” for the ongoing voter registration exercise.
The NADMO office is adjacent to the District Office of the Electoral Commission.
Reports indicate that NADMO administrative staff were reportedly compelled to vacate their offices to make way for the NPP Parliamentary candidate Pius Enam Hadzide and his team to use for activities, including the distribution of refreshments and incentives to first-time voters whom the party facilitated their registration.
Amidst dissent from some NADMO personnel, the District NADMO Director yielded to pressure from party officials.
He defended his decision that as a former constituency organizer he couldn’t reject an appeal by his party to use the office to serve food.
He consequently instructed staff to undertake field inspections until the end of the registration process.
“As I speak to you we are even on the field. We do more of the field works than sitting in the office. So it is true we didn’t go to the office yesterday and today too we won’t go to the office but we are not going to the office not because of that registration. I used to be the Constituency Organizer for my Party (NPP) three consecutive times so when my party is doing something behind my office and they want somewhere to eat, when they come to my office to eat is there something wrong with it?”. The district Director of NADMO said.
The Electoral Commission commenced its limited voter registration exercise on Tuesday, May 7, targeting first-time voters and those seeking to obtain a voter card.
Chairperson Madam Jean Mensa stated that the exercise aims to register approximately 623,000 first-time voters nationwide.
However, challenges with online registration prompted the EC to announce the commencement of offline voter registration on May 9, 2024.
Despite the shift to offline registration, there is persistent delays and long queues at registration centers, leading to incomplete registrations before the end of the day.
Asuogyaman constituency is one of the keenly contested parliamentary seats this year.
Pius Enam Hadzide, the Chief Executive Officer of National Youth Authority is contesting the current Member of Parliamentary Thomas Ampem Nyarko who is seeking re-election for a third term in office.
Following recent clashes against some non-residents allegedly brought from North Tongu by the NPP Parliamentary candidate to register in Asuogyaman, some machomen claiming to be national security operatives have been marauding at the registration center.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
