If, indeed, the Accra High Court has already ordered the three polling stations in the Ablekuma-North Constituency whose ballot-collation process was deliberately and criminally interrupted by the executive operatives of the then main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), then it absolutely goes without saying that the decision by the Jean Adukwei Mensa-Chaired Independent Electoral Commission (I/EC), obviously under duress, to rerun the 2024 Parliamentary Election of the entire Ablekuma-North Constituency is not only egregiously wrongheaded, it also clearly contravenes an order handed down by a legitimately constituted Court of Judicature of the land, as aptly referenced by Mr. Justin Frimpong Kodua, the General-Secretary of the country’s present main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) – (See “Ablekuma-North: ‘EC Has No Authority to Order Election Re-Run’ – NPP” Modernghana.com 7/3/25).
The results of the criminally interrupted Ablekuma-North Constituency, which was deliberately interrupted by a categorical order by Mr. Samuel “Sammy” Gyamfi, the former National Propaganda Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, currently renamed the National Information Officer of the National Democratic Congress, flanked by the party’s top national leadership, foremost among them the-now President John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama and Party National Chairman “Lt-Col.” Johnson “The Mosquito” Asiedu-Nketia, as it currently stands is clearly what may be aptly called a “tossup,” with the official candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akua Owusu-Afriyieh, having garnered some 34,613 of the valid votes counted, against the officially validated count of 34,199 votes in favor of the candidate on the ticket of the presently ruling National Democratic Congress.
Now, what the foregoing results mean is that there is absolutely no guarantee of the New Patriotic Party’s Candidate, with a relatively diddly majority of some 414 votes easily defeating her challenger or main political opponent, with the collation of the three polling stations that were criminally interrupted by the Florida, USA, Vacationing “Sammy Gyamfi Gang” of the National Democratic Congress yet to be factored into the equation, as it were. It is therefore somewhat foolhardy for the executive operatives of the New Patriotic Party to suppose that, somehow, insisting that the Electoral Commission strictly stick to the High Court’s Order for only the aforementioned three polling stations to have their ballots collated would automatically result in the desired outcome.
Much more likely, the Johnson “The Mosquito” Asiedu-Nketia-commandeered “Sammy Gyamfi Gang” would be able to, once again, easily bulldoze its way into treasonously clinching another parliamentary victory in the Ablekuma-North Constituency, as it had managed to do in dozens of electoral districts and constituencies in the December 7, 2024 General Election. Now, what makes the current situation even more precarious and a forgone conclusion is the fact that this time around, it is the Asiedu-Nketia and the John “The Boot-for-Boot” Dramani Mahama Posse that is effectively in charge of our national affairs, as Mr. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the National Democratic Congress-sponsored Member of Parliament for South-Dayi Constituency, in the Volta Region, minced absolutely no words in reminding Mr. Alexander Ato Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, in the wake of last year’s General Election: “We are no brothers, mind you; we shall soon show you where real power lies.”
In other words, even with the twice consecutively elected Akufo-Addo and the Mahamudu Bawumia-led previous government of the New Patriotic Party smack in charge of the nation’s affairs in the runup to last year’s General Election, a politically wet-eared 38-year-old former National Propaganda Officer of the National Democratic Congress, namely, Mr. Samuel “Sammy” Gyamfi, presently redesignated as the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress, flanked and staunchly backed by the Mahama Posse, was readily able to literally ride roughshod over his main political opponents of the then ruling New Patriotic Party.
Either way, that is whether only the Accra High Court-ordered three polling stations in the Ablekuma-North Constituency or the entire electoral district has its electoral exercise or franchise reprised is highly unlikely to wash or make any significant heck of a difference. What the leadership and the executive operatives of the New Patriotic Party ought to be fiercely and presently litigating and demanding is the imperative need for the Court, that is, either the Accra High Court that originally issued the order for the three Ablekuma-North Constituency polling stations to have their ballots collated or, better yet, appeal to the Supreme Court of Ghana (SCOG) to punitively have the results of the Ablekuma-North Constituency irrevocably certified as it presently stands, with the parliamentary seat of the latter hotly contested constituency or electoral district being effectively, summarily and peremptorily awarded to the New Patriotic Party, to serve as an instructive lesson to the ballot-snatching corporate leadership of the National Democratic Congress.
To be certain, were the leadership of the erstwhile former Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia-led Elephant Party really serious about the preservation of the integrity of Ghana’s fiercely fought and hard-earned democratic culture, they would have since long demanded the categorical, express and the summary annulment of the results of all the electoral districts and constituencies in the country where the Sammy Gyamfi and the Asiedu-Nketia-commanded and instructed collation-center mobs snatched and destroyed the ballot boxes, as witnessed in real time on television and by simultaneous radio broadcast and social media reports all over the country and around the world. That is how people who are genuinely interested in democratic justice fight for their inalienable human and civil rights. Boot-for-Boot, not Mouth-for-Boot.
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]
