An aspirant of the Unit Committee elections in the upcoming District Assembly polls, Mr. Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah has been dragged to the Human Rights Division of the High Courtfor allegedly engaging in fraudulent transfer of his vote.
Mr. Ahenkorah filed his nomination to contest the unit committee election after he ‘falsely’ transferred his vote from Tema Central Constituency to Tema West Constituency.
Consequently, three applicants, Nana Yaw Ntim, Duane Augustine Holdbrook and Edward Osei Nyarko are praying the High Court for an order of injunction restraining Mr. Ahenkorah from “contesting in and voting at the Unit Committee election in the Tema West Constituency.”
The applicants, who are being represented in Court by lawyer Thaddeus Sory, have also attached the Electoral Commission (EC) and the Tema Metropolitan Electoral Officer, Watson Tizor Apentsui who reportedly aided the transfer of Mr. Ahenkorah’s vote, contrary to the rules.
They pointed out that the EC per a press release dated September 29, 2014, which was signed by its Deputy Chairman in charge of operation, Mr. AmaduSulley, informed the general public that it was undertaking a special exercise to transfer the votes of prospective candidates desirous of contesting the upcoming District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections in Electoral Areas and Units other than where they were registered as voters to enable them file their nominations and to contest the elections in those Electoral Areas and Units.
The release also stated unambiguously that any prospective candidate who wanted to transfer his/her vote for the purpose of contesting the aforementioned elections “must do so not later than Monday the 13th day of October 2014.”
It further indicated that per the rules regulating such transfers, all “applicants for the transfer of votes must do so in person to the District Officer of the Commission in the District where the applicant seeks to contest the election.”
The applicants averred that Mr. Ahenkorah did not transfer his vote in person as the rules stipulated but rather did so through a third party.
According to them, Mr. Ahenkorah by a letter dated October 13, 2014, applied to the Metropolitan Electoral Office of Tema for the transfer of his vote from Tema Central constituency to the Sakumono Electoral Area in the Tema West constituency.
The letter was reportedly received by Electoral Officer Watson Tizor Apentsui on the same day it was purportedly written, which date, was the closing date for the submission of the application for the transfer of votes.
However, the applicants contented that by the traveler history report from the Ghana Immigration Service, Mr. Ahenkorah travelled before the said date, specifically on September 23, 2014 on Emirates Airlines 788 from Accra through Abidjan to Dubai.
They pointed out that Mr. Ahenkorah only returned to Accra on another Emirates airline 787 on October 25, 2014 “by which time the voter transfer exercise initiated by the EC had concluded.
The applicants further averred that apart from breaching the rulesregulating voter transfer from one constituency to another and which require prospective candidates who want to transfer their votes to do so in person, Mr. Ahenkorah also falsely declared in his application form that he had been resident in the Tema West constituency since January 2013.
They have therefore contended that Mr. Ahenkorah is ineligible to transfer his vote from Tema Central constituency to Tema West constituency and “to vote thereat and less still to contest the Unit Committee elections in the latter constituency.”
However, speaking to The Publisher in a telephone interview, Mr. Ahenkorah indicated he did nothing wrong in the whole process.
“It is not true, I live in Tema West,” he insisted, adding “As far as I am concerned I live in Tema West.”
“What I will say is, I don’t think the people (applicants) know what they are talking about because as far as I am concerned I am a bona fide, legitimate resident of Tema West and I know that the EC will not consider my application if I was not a bona fide resident of Tema West,” Mr. Ahenkorah stated.
Asked whether he transferred his vote from Tema Central to Tema West constituency or not, Mr. Ahenkorah replied “my registration to vote in 2012 was in Tema West.”
He was again quizzed, so you voted in Tema West? Mr. Ahenkorah retorted “I hold an ID card in Tema West for the 2012 election,” maintaining that “I am a registered voter and I duly voted. My card that I used to vote is Tema West.”
Mr. Ahenkorah promised to face the applicants in court
Source: The Publisher Newspaper
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