The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), which once praised the Electoral Commission (EC) as autonomous while in government, must not reject the planned re-run of elections in Ablekuma North, Public Interest Advocate Rodaline Imoru Ayarna has said.
She argued that the party should accept the EC’s decision to re-run voting in 19 polling stations in the disputed constituency.
Speaking on Accra-based TV3’s New Day on Thursday, July 3, Madam Imoru Ayarna expressed surprise that the NPP is now opposing the same EC they supported while in power.
“I am asking, since when did the NPP begin to feel that the EC is probably wrong or that they are not happy with the EC? I thought the EC is autonomous. That’s what we’ve always been told — that the EC is autonomous and whatever the EC says is what goes. So, what changed?
“If today the EC has decided that this is what it wants to do, they should just accept it in good faith because a lot of us accepted everything the EC said in good faith over the years,” she stated.
This follows the EC’s announcement of a re-run in 19 out of 37 polling stations in the Ablekuma North Constituency, which has remained without a Member of Parliament since the 2024 general elections.
The re-election is scheduled for Friday, July 11, after a meeting between NPP and NDC officials on Tuesday, July 1.
Meanwhile, the 2024 NPP parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North, Akua Afriyie, has rejected the EC’s plan, describing it as a U-turn from an earlier position.
She claimed EC officials had sworn under oath in Parliament that only three polling stations were outstanding.
