The President of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has cautioned the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be watchful in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
According to him, the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) may come claiming that there were issues regarding the creation of the Guan Constituency if the NDC emerges victorious in the 2024 parliamentary election in the area if things do not go their way.
“The NDC must be careful because I understand it’s NDC’s stronghold. I have told Fred Agbenyo, you will be sorry – you may win that seat and the NPP will come back quietly and say the processes leading to the creation of this whole thing, in itself caused a problem and you will lose the seat,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsnite on Wednesday.
The IMANI-Africa President’s assertion comes after the Electoral Commission (EC) dismissed accusations made by him that it disenfranchised the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi and Lipke (SALL) from voting in the 2020 Parliamentary elections.
But the Commission in a statement on Tuesday, May 14 said that IMANI’s accusation is “false and without basis.”
“The Commission never disenfranchised the good people of the newly created Guan Constituency. It is not in our interest to do so,” part of the statement read.
The EC clarified that it adhered to all legal procedures in the creation of the newly established Guan Constituency and did not disenfranchise any residents in the process.
“It is unfortunate that IMANI continues to peddle falsehood and untruths about the Commission at every point and turn. His [Franklin Cudjoe’s] narrative that the Commission disenfranchised the people of SALL, now the Guan Constituency, is FALSE. We urge the public to verify information put out by IMANI, with the Commission for the truth and the facts.”
But speaking on the show, Mr Cudjoe warned the NDC that going forward in the 2024 December general elections, the party’s parliamentary candidate may be denied victory.
“The NDC should listen and listen very clearly, they should talk to the big lawyers in the party. I have spoken to a lot of them, I have spoken to lawyers outside – this is a big trap, they should be careful.
“When they even created the so-called district, they said SALL, in the schedule, they said SALL Traditional Areas. The other districts they created were named properly so, districts – but these people said SALL Traditional Areas.
“It means that as we speak, that C.I. has not been amended and the EC is going on telling people, giving assurances. … anything, any of the frontlines of the EC tell me henceforth, I don’t trust them, they disenfranchised SALL,” Mr Cudjoe argued.
