Ellembelle NPP Candidate Voter ID Seized By EC

In a dramatic twist of events, Kwasi Bonzoh, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ellembelle constituency in the Western Region, had his voter identification card seized by officials of the Electoral Commission a few minutes after he registered as a voter in the constituency on Saturday.

The development is igniting a political tension that may soon reach boiling point in the constituency but Bonzoh has asked his provoked party supporters to stay calm although they are being teased and taunted by political rivals.

The NPP parliamentary candidate’s voter ID card was seized because a resident by name Solomon Isaac had raised a protest at the Awiebo Junction D/A Primary School registration center, challenging very strongly that Kwasi Bonzoh is not a resident of the area and therefore does not qualify to be registered there as a voter.

The Presiding Officer at the registration center, had no choice but to seize Bonzoh’s voter ID card without fear or favour.

Bonzoh, taken aback and in shock,  vehemently spoke all the Nzema language on his tongue to get his card back but the Electoral Commission’s Presiding Officer said the card remains seized until a review committee meets to probe the protest.

Despite the tons of explanation, Bonzoh was only made to take a photograph with the voter ID card after which it was grabbed from his again until further notice.

According to the EC official, if the protest by Solomon Isaac is found to be true, the NPP candidate would not be given his voter ID card. However if it is false, Bonzoh would get back his card.

Interestingly, Kwesi Bonzoh is not just the NPP Parliamentary candidate for Ellembelle Constituency but he doubles as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Ellembelle District Assembly.

In the 2016 elections, Bonzoh contested the seat on the ticket of the NPP but he lost to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah.

Bonzoh Speaks:

“Initially, I thought it was a joke, but low and behold he actually challenged my registration to the extent that after my registration, my voter ID card was not released to me. I find it very ridiculous because this is a town that I hail from, my father’s hometown. My father is alive and he is not even dead for anybody to say that they even remember my father.

“For me, it tells me one thing that the NDC is so scared of my candidature this year and that they wish they would not find my face on the ballot paper. That’s why they are using all these crude means to try to disenfranchise me but I am not worried because the laws of this country are with. The law says that you either hail from there or reside in that area. In my case, I hail from Awiebo”, a surprised Bonzoh explained and asked his supporters to calm down because he was very optimistic of having his voter ID card back in no time.

Solomon Isaac however insists he acted in the best interest of the public and that there was no way the NPP candidate would be given back his voter ID card: “We heard that the DCE was coming to register here and I don’t know that the DCE is from this place. For the past years of staying here, I have never seen him here or voting here. So how come he is now coming to register here?”

Bonzoh admitted this would be the first time he is registering to vote in the Awiebo town, where his biological father comes from, because all over the years had voted in another town where his mother comes from.

Bonzoh said he has the right to register in either his mother’s town or in his father’s home town because both towns fall within the Ellembelle Constituency.