The Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Rashid Tanko-Computer, has accused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of attempting to create chaos during the ongoing Akwatia by-election.

Speaking on Accra 100.5 FM's mid-day news on Tuesday, September 2, Mr. Tanko-Computer alleged that Majority Leader and MP for Effutu, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, was spotted pulling down posters of the NDC’s Parliamentary Candidate at a polling centre.

He described the alleged incident as an act of “desperation” by the opposition party, claiming it formed part of a deliberate plan to disrupt the polls.

“The desperation of the NPP has reached a crescendo,” he said.

“They have repeatedly said their intention is to cause confusion just to mar the beauty of the election.

They know they are losing — all indications point to that.”

Mr. Tanko-Computer insisted that the NDC’s posters had been displayed at the location for over three weeks without any challenge, questioning why they were suddenly targeted on voting day.

“These posters have been there for about three weeks.

The NPP also has posters in other areas — no one has touched them.

The fact that a place has been earmarked as a polling station doesn’t mean you should remove posters,” he argued.

The NDC official also raised concerns about what he termed the “sudden re-designation” of a training venue previously used by his party for agent deployment, which, he claimed, was converted into a polling station on election day.

“Yesterday, we used a particular location for training our agents. Today, that same place has been turned into a polling station, and we had to vacate.

The EC has gazetted polling stations, so why this last-minute change?” he asked.

Questioning the logic of removing campaign posters during voting, he added:
“In any case, are people voting for posters? Is it the posters that determine how voters cast their ballots?

This only creates unnecessary tension, fear, and panic.”

The Electoral Commission has yet to respond to the allegations, though security has been tightened in the constituency following early morning disturbances, which led to the arrest of one suspect.