Tempers are seriously flaring up at the campus of the University of Cape Coast following what Today’s investigations established to be attempts by certain elements within the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to massage the results of the recently held Students Representative Council (SRC) elections to favour one Mahmud Sharif Khalid Jnr., a known NDC activist, and the son of Upper West Regional Minister.
Alex Tettey-Enyo, Education Minister
According to the students, the fact that the issue has been taken to court would not in any way restrain them from taking to the streets to protest against what they described as the ‘lacklustre attitude’ of the university authorities when the matter was first brought to their attention.
Although an injunction has been sought from court to restrain the Electoral Commission (EC) from declaring the results by one of the candidates, Nicholas Normeshie, reports say the students are highly infuriated about the way and manner the Dean of Students, Professor Abotsi Nkyere, handled the matter when the students first got wind of the planned machinations and reported it to him.
The students also alleged that they have reasonable grounds to believe that some of the school authorities including officials of the EC were influenced to rig the elections, especially, that of the SRC presidency to favour Mahmud Sharif Khalid Jnr., the Castle choice.
According to the students, on the day of the elections, some NDC officials in the Central Region were spotted in an NDC branded Pick-up vehicle at the UCC campus, making frantic efforts to bribe students to vote for Castle baby, Khalid.
The gang, which surreptitiously entered the UCC campus to execute the sinister agenda, Today’s findings established, maneuvered to have their sympathizers indulge in multiple voting with fake ballot papers which had no serial numbers.
The paper’s findings were corroborated by some enraged students who voluntarily stormed the offices of Today last Tuesday as a result of the paper’s earlier publication on the matter.
The students who for fear of victimization pleaded to speak on condition of anonymity alleged that few days to the election, a sheet was circulated around by some known NDC activist on campus who tagged themselves as ‘Okudzeto boys’ and registered people who were interested in helping the Castle candidate ‘baby Khalid’ to win the SRC presidency.
The machination, according to the students, with the aid of the Electoral Commissioner in charge of the election, Dr Linda Ford, was prosecuted without problems on the day of election.
“Whether the issue has been taken to court or not we are going to demonstrate on campus for the Dean and the rest of the school authorities to know that nobody can take as for a ride,” the students bluntly stated, arguing that they could not fathom why the university authorities failed to act when their attention was first drawn to the matter.
“We (students of UCC) are going to wear red bands to protest against the government for trying to impose their preferred candidate on us. In this era of rule of law, one had thought that students would be allowed to exercise their franchise without any fear, but the issue seems to be different now,” one of the students wondered.
Against that background, the students reiterated their desire to fight tooth and nail to have the university and the EC declare the election null and void to pave way for fresh election to be organized.
It would be recalled that Today in its Tuesday, 13 April, 2010 edition reported on how a deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, was employing various unorthodox tactics to get the outcome of the UCC SRC election in favour of NDC members seeking for leadership positions within the students’ front.
In the said publication, the paper gave vivid accounts about how the deputy minister clandestinely stormed the KNUST campus to execute his propagandist expedition of sharing money left, right and center to buy votes. But that move was torpedoed by the unbiased posture of the electoral commissioner in charge of the election.
STORY: STEPHEN DARKO
I am rather surprised about the kind of subjectivity that is getting rooted in our media today. I am a student of Cape Vars who have been following the entire SRC elections on campus but what I am reading here is something different. There is an allegation in this report tha on the day of the elections, some NDC officials in the Central Region where spotted in an NDC branded Pick-up vehicle at the UCC campus, making frantic efforts to bribe students to vote for a candidate is neither here nor there. Nothing of that sort happening on UCC campus. I dont know and stand to be corrected if there is another Cape Vars somewhere in Ghana. If the media can be so corrupt, bias and subjective in their reportage due to their parochial interest ? then I am afraid the future of the Ghanaian media is at stake. I pray that sometimes our media men should try to verify their information before bringing it into the public domain.