The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) claims government is planning to rig the December 2020 polls after the President Akufo-Addo Bryan Acheampong to the Interior Ministry.

Speaking to journalists outside Parliament Thursday, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the move legitimises the conduct of Mr Acheampong who was cited by the Short Commission for acting inappropriately during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

“It is a slap in the face of the Emile Short Commission. And I believe that it is a cog in the whole orchestration to rig the elections,” Mr Asiedu Nketia said.

Mr Acheampong, until his reappointment, was Minister of State at the Ministry of National Security.

He was sternly criticised by a section of the public following the violence that characterised the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Mr Acheampong was in charge and deployed the masked men who stormed the La Bawaleshie polling centre, starting a confusion that could have resulted in the deaths of many.

The Commission established by President Akufo-Addo to look into how the election turned violent, resulting in the injury of 16 persons, in its report recommended evaluation and reorganisation of the National Security Ministry.

Unimpressed by how the National Security Operatives deployed conducted themselves, the Commission led by Justice Emile Short recommended for him “to be reprimanded for his ultimate responsibility as Minister in authorising an operation of that character on a day of an election in a built-up area.”

Government rejected the Commission’s recommendation.

According to Mr Asideu Nketia government deliberately poo-pooed on the recommendations made by the Short Commission because it had a different agenda.

That, he suspects, is beginning to take shape with Mr Acheampong’s new appointment.

“This is somebody who deployed thugs to create mayhem at a by-election for which reason the Commission was established and declared that action unlawful and recommended that the group he had been commanding be disbanded, he himself should be punished and so on.

“And so what President Akufo-Addo has done is to tell the Emile Short Commission and anyone who is worried about vigilantism and so on to go to hell,” he said.

The General Secretary is certain that the President’s action will legitimise the conduct of Mr Acheampong and give him the legitimate authority to deploy “the thugs they’ve trained and embedded in the police service for election security.”