2020 polls: key Ashanti NDC executives compromised -report

Fact-finding committee report by the Council of Elders of the main opposition NDC in the Ashanti region has established that some regional executives of the party compromised their positions to give the ruling NPP advantage in winning the 2020 elections in the region.

“Even though no concrete evidence was established that the Regional Chairman and the Regional Secretary collected monies from some NPP officials, some party members including the Regional Women’s Organizer and the Regional Organizer were convinced that both the Regional Chairman and Secretary compromised their positions to the detriment of the NDC Party, due to the manner these two executives handled the whole election process in the Region,” a copy of the committee report intercepted by African Editors disclosed.

Again, the report said: “The Ashanti Regional Organizer also informed the committee that the Regional Chairman, Regional Secretary and himself travelled to Axim to attend a funeral and the Regional Secretary informed him that the Land cruiser they used for the journey was bought and donated to regional Chairman (Nana Kwasi )by an NPP contractor”

The seven (7) member fact-finding committee was set up in January following the barrage of concerns about the 2020 electoral figures obtained by the party in the region, which suggested that the figures were allegedly manipulated.

The Ashanti Regional Council of Elders put together the committee to probe the happenings. The committee was also tasked to come out with recommendations, which could be implemented to improve the NDC election results in the Ashanti Region.

Read the key conclusions contained in the report

There was no proper coordination among the Regional Executives. No teamwork and factions were created as a result of that. These factions operated to their own advantage.

The Regional Chairman was not aware of the people supposed to represent the party at the EC collation room.

The Chairman (Nana Kwasi) was very evasive when he appeared before the committee. At a point when a question was put to him, he retorted arrogantly that he was not prepared to answer the question until the committee informed him of the source of the information.

In general the Regional Chairman exhibited gross incompetence, he seemed not to know what was happening before, during and after the 2020 elections. He was not on top of his work as Regional Chairman. He left everything in the care of the Regional Secretary who also manipulated the system to his advantage.

The Treasurer who was supposed to handle all financial issues was completely left out.

It was evident that, there was no proper preparation towards the selection and training of Polling Agents. The usual period for such an important activity should not be less than two (2) months, unfortunately in the 2020 elections, the activity of selection and training was less than two (2) weeks, which was very inadequate. This resulted in not getting the right caliber of people to act as polling agents.

There was no proper coordination and collaboration between National and the Regional Elections Directorate. This resulted in a situation where the Regional Election Directorate was left on its own with no clear direction of how to operate. At a point when the Regional Elections Director was needed, he was not around because he had been asked by the Regional Secretary to go home.
The creation of a separate IT Department from the main Election Directorate did not work as expected. It created unnecessary tension within the Directorate. This eventually affected the collation of the 2020 election results.

The oversight responsibility of the two (2) departments giving to the Regional Secretary was not properly executed.

Information gathered indicated that two (2) separate Electronic collation centers were set up in the Region, one of the centers was set up at the regional Secretariat which was controlled by the Regional Secretary (Kwame Zu). The other center was at the Islamic Youth Center at the Kumasi Central Mosque, which was controlled by the Regional Organizer, (Isham Alhassan Bonsu).

There was a report of a third center, which was set up at Ejusu at a hotel belonging to the Regional Chairman (Nana Kwasi). The Chairman denied that any such third center existed when he was asked about it.

The creation of these multiple centers, led to the neglect of setting up of the normal Manual collation at the Regional office as has always been the case. When all the Electronic collation systems failed, there was no alternative and reliable methods of receiving results from the constituencies.

The fact that most of our Agents even in Kumasi were not competent due to poor selection and inadequate training , it was possible our opponents could have taken the advantage of the situation at the constituency level to manipulate the election figures.

It was also established that transmission of results from the Polling Stations to the Constituency collation Centers were not well coordinated which might have left room for manipulation of the results.

The arrangements made for the collation of results between the EC collation center and the Regional Party collation center was poorly managed both in human and material terms. No specific person was put in charge to coordinate that very important activity, and no official laptop or desk top computer was made available for the purpose.

No Regional Party Executive who appeared before the committee was able to mention the NDC Presidential figure obtained at the time the Electronic collations systems broke down but unfortunately, most of them were able to mention that of the NPP.

The Bomso Team’s work even though was known by many highly placed Party members and some Regional Executives, the group was not given the required recognition and as such could not function as expected.

During interaction with the Ashanti Regional Women’s Organizer, ( Ms Gloria Akosua Huze) it became clear that Ms Gloria Huze had some concrete information indicating that both the Regional Chairman and the Regional Secretary compromised their positions. The Regional Secretary did not deny the fact that he met the Mayor of Kumasi at an odd place and time, when he appeared before the committee.

The Regional Secretary indicated that he met the former Mayor of Kumasi to discuss issues relating to the allocation of Kejetia Stores. The other Regional Executives including the Regional Organizer (Isham Alhassan Bonsu) who appeared before the committee disputed his reason because the issue of Kejetia stores has never been discussed at their usual Regional Executive meetings.

According to the Regional Organizer when he heard about the Regional Secretary meeting theformer Mayor to discuss the “ Kejetia stores”, he was very unhappy because he has been deeply involved in KMA matters so if anything at all he should have been the person to meet the NPP official or be involved in any discussions about the Kejetia stores not the Regional Secretary.

The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential candidate, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won the presidential election in the Ashanti Region with 1,795,824 votes.

His closest contender, Mr John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) polled 653,149 votes.

The NDC’s 2020 Presidential Candidate John D. Mahama proceeded to the Supreme Court with election petition but was handed 7:0 outcomes severally throughout the trial on motions, applications and reviews filed by the Legal Team led by Legal Puritan Tsatsu Tsikata after the Electoral Commission Chair Jean Mensa was granted her will to escape the witness box to defend the mathematical exactitudes that informed declaration of different total figures as the presidential election results.