Chairman Fiifi Mensah
Tension is mounting within the Bantama Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) following allegations of manipulation of the constituency’s electoral album ahead of the party’s upcoming internal elections.
Before an interview with the constituency chairman, Fiifi Mensah, chaotic scenes erupted at the forecourt of the party’s constituency office as rival party supporters exchanged heated verbal attacks and insults over the disputed album.
The situation nearly degenerated into violence, prompting personnel from the Suntreso Police Command to intervene and restore calm.
The police subsequently invited the Bantama Constituency Chairman, Fiifi Mensah, and the First Vice Chairman, Kingsley Attah, popularly known as Wofa Attah, to assist with investigations into the disturbance.
Speaking after the incident, Mr. Mensah directly accused the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bantama, Francis Asenso-Boakye, of masterminding what he described as the manipulation of the constituency’s electoral album to favour his preferred candidates in the impending constituency elections.
According to him, Bantama had remained peaceful until it emerged that several long-serving delegates had allegedly been removed from the album without justification.
Mr. Mensah alleged that Mr. Asenso-Boakye had formed a group to control the electoral album process without involving him, despite being the constituency chairman, and claimed that delegates perceived to be loyal to him were deliberately being deleted.
“We will not allow anyone to determine who should remain in the album based on personal affiliations. The electoral album belongs to the entire party, not a select group of people,” he stated.
He further alleged that delegates who had served the party faithfully for between 12 and 16 years had been removed from the album solely because they were believed to support him.
Mr. Mensah also questioned why he, as constituency chairman, had not been given access to the electoral album, describing the situation as unacceptable.
He claimed that while some party executives, including the First Vice Chairman, the Youth Organiser and some polling station executives were allowed to add dozens of delegates to the album, his own list of 19 proposed delegates was rejected because they were allegedly considered his supporters.
According to him, party leaders had earlier reached a consensus that no existing delegates would be removed from the register, but that agreement had been disregarded.
He maintained that he had no objection to the outcome of the elections provided the process was transparent and fair.
“If the elections are free, fair and peaceful, whoever wins deserves the victory. I will campaign, and if I lose, I will accept the outcome honourably. But we will not accept attempts to manipulate the system to satisfy someone’s selfish interests,” he stressed.
Mr. Mensah disclosed that the disagreement intensified on Sunday, June 21, after which he reported the matter to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the party, who advised him to submit formal petitions to the appropriate party authorities.
He said the affected delegates were only demanding a peaceful election based on a credible electoral album.
To prevent what he described as further manipulation, Mr. Mensah revealed that he had locked the constituency office and taken custody of all copies of the electoral album until the matter is resolved.
“I am the constituency chairman and I am supposed to supervise the process. When I realised there were too many irregularities, I took custody of the albums because I want the issues resolved peacefully before the process continues,” he stated.
Efforts to obtain a response from the Bantama MP, Francis Asenso-Boakye, regarding the allegations were unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.
FROM David Afum, Kumasi