Audio By Carbonatix
Interior Minister Mr. Cletus Avoka has ruled out the postponement of elections in Akwatia ahead of a Regional Security Council meeting to assess the security situation in the constituency.
The Eastern Regional Security Council has reportedly recommended that the election be postponed.
The suggestion follows violent clashes in the constituency Sunday between supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Election in six polling stations in the constituency are due Tuesday as elections in those centres were inconclusive in December 2008.
NPP General Secretary, Nana Ohene Ntow, alleged he was attacked by supporters of the ruling party while Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Baba Jamal, who is the NDC’s candidate, said his supporters have suffered machete wounds.
But speaking to Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, Mr Avoka said failure to organise elections in the constituency would be “an indictment.”
Citing Ghana’s track record in organizing peaceful elections since 1992, Mr Avoka said the Akwatia elections must go on while adequate security would be provided.
“We have been credited recently and in the past for free and fair elections; we’ve had 230 constituencies in the country which we have managed before, not [only] today [but] since 1992. I think it will be an indictment if this small area or one constituency can bring us to our knees,” he told SMS host Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah.
“I want to believe that it is important to provide security so that we have elections on the ground.”
He however stressed that officials would be monitoring the security situation in the constituency and advice the Electoral Commission (EC) which would take a final decision.
“We are monitoring the situation today and then we would be able to inform the Electoral Commissioner adequately about security measures before he takes a decision,” he said.
Meanwhile with barely 24 hours to the election re-run, Akwatia is said to be teeming with fully-armed police and military personnel.
A dusk to dawn curfew is still in force. Mr Avoka says the curfew is intended to restore security and safeguard life and property.
But as a wrap of their campaigns, both the NDC’s Baba Jamal and the NPP’s Dr Kofi Asare, in the company of their party top guns, are said to be moving from house to house to canvass for votes.
Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
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