Founder of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has lent his support to the allegations made by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) implementing strategies to ensure that no formidable opposition emerges in the forthcoming 2024 general elections.

During an appearance on the Class Morning Show on Thursday, September 28, 2023, Mr. Ayariga affirmed the claims put forth by the NDC, suggesting that the current government has aligned the Electoral Commission, security services, and the judiciary in its favor in preparation for the 2024 elections.

Mr Ayariga explained that: “Because when the smaller political parties decided to go to court and we got the injunction application against the Electoral Commission, [from carrying out the limited voter registration exercise] you saw what happened, it was thrown to the dustbin. So clearly what it means is that the Chief Justice did not want to listen to such an application, so if the NDC is saying that, of course there’s iota of truth in this, you cannot just debunk it because they themselves have done it in the past.”

The leader of the APC, Hassan Ayariga, has put forward a proposal advocating for a constitutional amendment that would prevent any government from having the authority to appoint an Electoral Commissioner.

“So they[NDC] know what they’re talking that any anytime they are all in power they keep changing the Electoral Commission to their own and why would you keep changing an Electoral Commissioner every time your party was in power and so I would even say that the Electoral Commissioner should not be elected by the President of the day, we should have a constitution that makes them independent. None of their commissioners should be elected by the president or appointed by the president,” Mr Ayariga proposed.

Mr Ayariga stressed: “Those allegations the NDC has put out there there’s some iota of truth in it.”

Mr. Ayariga underscored the detrimental consequences of Presidents being responsible for appointing Electoral Commissioners. He recounted an incident in the Dome Kwabenya Constituency, his place of residence, where despite his driver and friends voting for him, the Electoral Commission reported that he received no votes, leaving him with a tally of zero votes.

“He stood there, he voted for me, but when they counted them I didn’t get one single vote, but he voted, his wife voted, friends of mine within the community voted, but I got zero. My agent was there, they counted the votes and I was given the number, when they were recording I got zero.

“I got 422 votes in Suame, my Parliamentary candidate got 600 votes, when they were writing they wrote 200 for my parliamentary candidate and they gave me 22 votes and when they contested they asked him that what is Ayariga going to do with 400 votes and the Electoral Commissioner was there,” Mr Ayariga intimated.