Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central in the Central Region, Kennedy Agyapong, says his party, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), would not allow the 2016 general election to be rigged.
According to him, incumbent President John Dramani Mahama and the Electoral Commission (EC) plan to rig the elections slated for December 7 to save the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) from a possible defeat which stares the party in the face.
He has therefore, served notice that any such plan would be fiercely resisted.
Addressing a charged crowd at the Okaishie Drug Lane in Accra over the weekend, the no-nonsense politician noted, “Ghanaians will vote for us but Mahama and the woman want to change the destiny of the people because they realize they are losing and NPP is winning.”
That was during the commemoration of police brutalities on protesters who were demanding a new voter register together with the leadership of the ‘Let My Vote Count Alliance’ (LMVCA), a year ago which fell on Friday, September 16.
Revelations
“We have already won the elections but Charlotte Osei and Mahama have made up their minds not to give it to Akufo-Addo but we have to do whatever it takes to safeguard our votes lest we stay in opposition for another four years; we can only prevent it if we muster the courage to stand firm and face them,” were his exact words.
He advised President Mahama and the EC boss, Charlotte Osei: “God’s plans are not those of mankind’s. I tell you today, the power of the masses is stronger than the gun; let us defend our country.”
Mr Kennedy Agyapong, among other things, claimed that the EC chair intends to rig the elections for the NDC and thereafter flee to the United States of America where he claimed she recently bought a house to stay, should the country be in turmoil.
Confidence
But the Assin Central MP said with a lot of confidence, “We will win this election because it’s going to be boot-for-boot and an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
He observed, “There cannot be peace when there is no justice. Let’s stand up and fight for our rights.
“Let’s not think we have already won the elections; we have to open our eyes and be vigilant in order not to allow them rig the elections like they did in 2012…this woman and John Mahama don’t want fair elections but let us sacrifice ourselves to save this country from the hands of the oppressors.”
NDC Game Plan
As part of its game plan, the MP revealed that the NDC had started going round the rural areas taking the voter identity cards of farmers, most of who are not educated, under the pretext of providing them with fertilizers and loans; and also gone to neighbouring Togo, Cote D’Ivoire and Burkina Faso to register not less 2 million people to come and vote in the upcoming elections.
He also claimed that the EC had managed to recruit about 70,000 people who are sympathetic to the cause of the NDC, including some university graduates and teachers, to be used as presiding and election officers during the elections to help execute the rigging plan.
That, he said, was the reason why President Mahama had become overly confident about his chances of winning the elections.
But Kennedy served notice, “Any presiding officer who will misbehave at the polling station will taste the wrath of the people.”
Mr Agyapong is also pushing for ballots cast during the ‘special voting’ slated for December 1, to be counted on the same day to avoid a possible rigging, saying, “It is one of the strategies the NDC intends to employ to rig the elections.”
Other speakers including Gabby Otchere-Darko, Sammy Awuku, Justice Adzakuma, Abigail Ewurama Addo, David Asante (Convener of the LMVCA), Abu Ramadan and a host of orders, recalled what they went through at the hands of the police on that fateful day and swore that never again would Ghanaians sit down for such injustice to be visited on them in the course of exercising their constitutional rights.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu