NPP Sunyani East Constituency declares executives by popular acclamation amidst agitations by some party members

Ten members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Sunyani East Constituency in the Bono Region were declared unopposed on Sunday morning.

The new Chairman of the Constituency is Bartholomew N. Incoom.

This is despite agitations at the venue – the forecourt of a filling station, adjacent to the Sunyani High court, by some other party members in the Constituency.

They claim there is an injunction on the conduct of the election to elect constituency executives.

But according to the Constituency Election Committee Chairman, Agyei Yaw Sarkodie, he supervised the election by popular acclamation because he had not been served a notice of injunction by any court.

“I am a law-abiding citizen, and if served by a court, I will have no option but to respect the directives of the court. No bailiff has served me any document. I am very well known (in the Constituency), and if there is any injunction, I am sure people would have contacted me. So I have no idea of any injunction”, he told the media in Sunyani after the acclamation exercise.

JoyNews checks at the Municipal Police Command and the Bono Regional Electoral Commission (EC) office confirmed that both institutions stayed away because they had been served with a notice of an injunction.

On the choice of venue for the acclamation, the Committee Chairman said that is where delegates’ security was assured.

On the election itself, Mr. Yaw Sarkodie explained that 17 party members bought forms when nominations opened, out of which one didn’t submit it.

“Three filed to contest for the secretaryship, two for the First Vice Chairman position, and two for Constituency Organizer. But after the vetting process, two were disqualified, one wrote to withdraw from the contest, while two others – Moses Damoah and Clement Bonsu – failed to show up on the election day without notice”, he explained.

He said the EC prepared election materials, including ballot papers, for them, and per the party convention, he had to go ahead with the exercise because all those eligible to vote were present and were verified.

He said when the ten unopposed were presented to the delegates, they shouted “popular acclamation”.

“I then asked them, including the sitting Member of Parliament, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, three consecutive times if the aspirants should all be confirmed, and their responses were yes. I did not hear any dissenting voice”, he explained.

He said all the 1,335 delegates, comprising 1,275 Polling Station Executives, 5 Council of Elders, 5 Patrons, 34 Electoral Area Coordinators, 15 Constituency Executives, and the MP, confirmed the 10 aspirants by popular acclamation.

The candidates, declared unopposed by the election committee chairman, Agyei Yaw Sarkodie, are; Bartholomew N. Incoom –Chairman, Ebenezer Opoku -First Vice Chairman, Francis Osei Mensah -Second Vice Chairman, Christian Gyabaa –Secretary, and Ebenezer Oteng -Assistant Secretary.

The rest are; Evans Kwame Kyere –Organizer, Mohammed Ibn Ahmed -Youth Organizer, Evelyn A. Botwe -Women Organizer, Veronica Tuffour Berko –Treasurer, and Salia Moro -Nasara Coordinator.

Some of the aggrieved people insisted they will use all legal means to resist what they called “an illegal exercise to impose illegal executives on members of the party in the Sunyani East Constituency”.