The 7-member fact finding Committee appointed by the Ashanti Regional National Democratic Congress (NDC) Council of Elders to establish the veracity or otherwise of the allegations of misconduct against the party’s regional executives has recommended that the Regional Secretary, Kwame Zu, should be barred from all party activities.
Mr. Zu, a Lecturer, Researcher and Consultant at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) has been accused of compromising his position as the party’s regional scribe by abandoning his position soon after the elections in 2020.
His conduct, which goes to reinforce the perception of the public that he compromised his position, is seen by the Committee as a betrayal of the party.
The Council of Elders, by appointing the Committee, acted on the strength of NDC Constitution
(Article 25, sub-section 3b), which empowers the Council of Elders to endeavor to resolve all disputes and differences among party members and among the various institutions within the party.
The recommendation, among others, was to help address the seeming rot in the party in the region, regarding issues relating to the 2020elections in the Ashanti region.
The recommendations are based on the realisation that the organisation of the 2020 elections was poorly managed and that the general performance of some Regional Executives smacked of some rot in the system, which require further investigation.
The committee noted that there was no proper co-ordination among the Regional Executives. “No teamwork and factions were created and as a result of that, factions operated to their own advantage,” saying Augustine Nana Kwasi Andrews, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, was not aware of the people supposed to represent the party at the EC collation room.
It said Nana Kwasi was very evasive when he appeared before the committee and that at a point he was hesitant to answer a question and he retorted arrogantly, until the committee informed him of the source of the information.
“Generally, the Regional Chairman exhibited gross incompetence; he seemed not to know what was happening before, during and after the2020 elections. He was not on top of his work as Regional Chairman. He left everything in the care of the Regional Secretary who also
manipulated the system to his advantage”, the Committee established.
It was also gathered that Mr. Hopson Keku, the Regional Treasurer who was supposed to handle all financial issues was completely left out and there was evidently no proper preparation towards the selection and training of Polling Agents.
As the usual period for such an important activity, which should not be less than two months was done in less than two weeks, which was unfortunately inadequate in the 2020elections and thus resulted in not getting the right caliber of people to act as polling agents.
The Committee also noted that there was no proper co-ordination and collaboration between National and the Regional Elections Directorate, resulting in a situation where the Regional Election Directorate was left on its own with no clear direction of how to operate.
At a point when the Regional Elections Director was needed, he was not around because he had been asked by the Regional Secretary to go home.
The committee suggested that the situation where only the Chairmen and the Secretaries control all the finances should not be allowed to continue and proposed the setting up of a financial committee at the Constituency and Regional levels, where all donations both financial
and material meant to be used for party work will be channelled.
The Committee emphasised that the proposed financial committee must be made public for the information of the general public and any individual or group of people collecting any donation without passing such donations through the committee should be severely punished when identified.
Among others, the Committee wants the Election Directorate and IT Directorate to be put together as one entity and allow the Election Directorate to be effective and have full responsibility.
It follows the realisation that the creation of a separate IT Department from the main Election Directorate did not work as expected, as it created unnecessary tension within the Directorate and thus affected the collation of the 2020 election results eventually.
The Committee further noted that since all the Regional Executives, either appointed or elected, have various important roles to play, they should be allowed to play their respective roles with no interference from any one, citing the issue of the Regional Secretary asking the Elections Director to go home a day before the elections because his job as Elections Director was over.
“This directive” the committee noted “demoralised the Election Directorate staff so much that they could not function efficiently.”
The Committee found out that two separate Electronic collation centers were set up in the Region, one at the regional Secretariat, which was controlled by the Regional Secretary (Kwame Zu), while the other was at the Islamic Youth Center at the Kumasi Central Mosque, which was controlled by the Regional Organiser, Isham Alhassan Bonsu.
The creation of these multiple centers, led to the neglect of setting up of the normal Manual collation at the Regional office, as has always been the case.
When all the Electronic collation systems failed, there were no alternative and reliable methods of receiving results from the constituencies.
It was also established that transmission of results from the Polling Stations to the Constituency collation Centers were not well coordinated, which might have left room for manipulation of the
Results and indicted the Regional Chairman and Regional Secretary for not being truthful to the committee.
The committee deduced that it was Regional Chairman who called the NDC Lawyers to proceed to the Regional Secretariat to help Mr. Brogya-Genfi, the Regional Youth Organiser to draft a protest note, but when the Regional Chairman appeared before the committee and was asked
whether he was the one who invited the lawyers to the Secretariat, he denied any knowledge about that event, yet he admitted that he impressed upon Brogya-Genfi to indicate that he signed the final document under duress.
The Regional Chairman said it was the Regional Secretary who authorised Mr. Brogya-Genfi to sign the elections result document.
Concluding its report, the Committee emphasised that the collation and declaration of the Ashanti Regional 2020 results were poorly managed.
In all, 18 members, comprising five elected executive members, four appointed officials and nine party members in the region appeared before the committee.
The Committee was chaired by Dr Samuel Sarpong, with Mr. Jonny Osei Kofi as the Secretary.
The other members are; Mr. Kwabena Bempong Marfo, Prof. Ohene Adjei, Ms. Juliet Abena Takyiwa, Mr. Kaakyire Oppong Kyekyeku and Mr. Kwadwo Adu Gyamfi.
