A Member of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, Kofi Dotse Appiatu-Ampaw has warned that Ghana could “burn” if the governing party attempts rigging the 2016 elections.
The former Parliamentary aspirant of the Weija Constituency told Richard Sky of Accra-based Citi Fm that Tuesday’s violent attack on the NPP’s Headquarters by a mob of angry machete-wielding and gun-toting youth, is a watered-down harbinger of the potential outburst of violence that will manifest in 2016, should the governing National Democratic Congress attempt rigging the polls as the party did in 2012; he claimed.
Referring to the irate mob, Appiatu-Ampaw said: “You see, there is very deep-seated anger boiling amongst them and that anger I’m telling you that the full venom of it is going to be seen in 2016.”
“All that you are seeing here is a little bit of demonstration. I’m telling you 2016 let any word get out that somebody has tried to rig an election, I’m telling you if we are not careful, we are going to burn this country.”
Tuesday’s violence at the NPP’s headquarters was a consequential spillover of recriminations between two camps within the leadership of Ghana’s biggest opposition party, over recent changes effected by the Chairman and General Secretary at the party’s Communications Directorate.
It comes on the heels of the party’s preparations for two presidential primaries on August 31 and October 18, respectively. The first Congress, of which about 800 Delegates will take part, will be used to whittle down the seven flagbearer aspirants to five as stipulated by the party’s amended constitution. The second, involving 115,000 delegates, will be used to elect one out of the five left standing.
