Franklin Cudjoe, the president of IMANI Africa, has criticized the Electoral Commission's (EC) denial of disenfranchising the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) during the 2020 parliamentary elections, calling it brazenly dishonest.

The Electoral Commission (EC) has refuted allegations made by Franklin Cudjoe, the president of IMANI Africa, regarding the disenfranchisement of the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL).

In a statement issued on Wednesday, May 15, the EC clarified that it did not disenfranchise the people in the newly established Guan Constituency. The EC emphasized that it followed all legal procedures in creating the constituency and did not disenfranchise anyone in the process.

The EC labeled the allegations as false and advised the public to disregard them.

“It is unfortunate that IMANI continues to peddle falsehood and untruths about the Commission at every point and turn. His [Franklin Cudjoe’s] narrative that the Commission disenfranchised the people of SALL, now the Guan Constituency, is FALSE. We urge the public to verify information put out by IMANI, with the Commission for the truth and the facts.”

Franklin Cudjoe in a counterstatement, insisted that the inability of the SALL residents to partake in the 2020 parliamentary elections lies solely at the doorstep of the EC because “it is a matter of public record that in the evening of 6th December 2020, the Electoral Commission issued a public statement to the effect that voters in the SALL Traditional areas could not vote in the Parliamentary elections scheduled for 7th December 2020."

Franklin Cudjoe added that the EC’s December 6, 2020 statement that excluded “voters in the SALL Traditional Areas from voting in the election for a Member of Parliament was a flagrant violation of the right to vote of the said voters, which amounts to being disenfranchised.”

“The exclusion of voters in the SALL Traditional Areas from voting in the election for a Member of Parliament was a flagrant violation of the right to vote of the said voters, which amounts to being disenfranchised. As a consequence, the people of the SALL Traditional Areas do not have representation in the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic. This has rightly been described by Prof. Kwaku Asare as “the cardinal sin” of the 8th Parliament.

“It is brazenly dishonest on the part of the Electoral Commission to refer to my statement about the people of SALL being disenfranchised as “falsehood and misinformation” or “falsehood and untruths about the Commission”. None of the so-called “facts surrounding the inability of the residents of SALL now the Guan Constituency, to vote in the 2020 Parliamentary Election” that are recited in the 14th May 2024 statement of the Electoral Commission, can take away the simple, indisputable fact that, on the eve of the 2020 elections, the Electoral Commission publicly announced that the people of SALL could not vote in the Parliamentary election.