The Assin North community has been reassured by the Ghana Police Service that sufficient security measures have been implemented in the area to maintain safety, law, and order before, during, and after today’s election.
“We wish to urge the people of the Assin North Constituency to go about their normal activities freely including going out to exercise their civic duty of casting their vote,” it said.
It gave the assurance at a meeting held at the instance of the Inspector-General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare and the Police Management Board with key stakeholders in the election including the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) and the Electoral Commission (EC) to enhance the working relationship among all stakeholders towards a peaceful election.
False information
A statement issued and signed by the Director, Public Affairs, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Grace Ansah-Akrofi, said the security concerns of all the stakeholders were noted and had been factored into the final security strategy for the election.
“However, one concern all the stakeholders want the public to help them address is the circulation of false information on social media.
In this regard, we wish to urge the public to be circumspect in their reportage on the election and avoid circulating false information that has the likelihood to occasion a breach of peace since the police will take the necessary action against anyone found culpable,” it said.
The statement said the NPP team was led by its National Chairman, Stephen Ntim, and National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, while the NDC team was led by the National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, and General Secretary, Fifi Kwetey.
The LPG was also led by its General Secretary, Jerry Owusu Appauh, and regional executive members and the Electoral Commission was led by its Director of Operations.
“We wish to express our gratitude to all our stakeholders for their cooperation so far and look forward to the same level of cooperation for the last lap of the election to ensure a safe, secure and peaceful exercise,” it said.
Voters/Candidates
A total of 41,168 registered voters are expected to cast their votes in 99 polling stations across the Assin North Constituency in the poll today.
The by-election has three candidates.
They are Charles Opoku of the NPP, James Gyakye Quayson, NDC, and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana.
It was necessitated by the removal of Mr Quayson of the NDC as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North Constituency due to a Supreme Court ruling on his dual citizenship case.
Observers
In a related development, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) says it has deployed 15 observers for today’s by-election.
It said the deployment was in fulfilment of its mandate to mobilise citizens to actively participate in the electoral process and to complement the efforts of the Electoral Commission in ensuring a transparent, free, fair and peaceful by-election.
