ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Glory be to God for bringing us this far. I want to say a very big thank you to all students for the turnout and support even through the rain and other hovering obstacles to exercise their franchise for DSK.
After conversations with my strong room agent and other stakeholders, a lot of inconsistencies have been identified. The credibility of the just ended election is highly questionable for a number of glaring reasons.
- In an election where all portfolios have to be voted and none can be skipped, it would be absurd for one to believe that total votes for various portfolios would not tally. Total votes for President was 13,478, that for General Secretary was 13,417; this leaves a difference of 61 votes. Votes cast for Financial Secretary was 13,343; comparing this figure to the 13,478 for President leaves a whooping missing 135 votes. The difference between the 13,417 for General Secretary and 13,343 for Financial Secretary leaves some unaccounted 74 votes. This unexplained difference in figures questions the fairness of this election.
- During the course of the elections, the figures for the office of the Women’s Commissioner portfolio never tallied with the number of female votes from other portfolios. Upon inquiring, he was informed that the reason for such gross discrepancy was because some students made a mistake with the gender section on their application when they gained admission. That is, when the person for instance, a male was filling the form, he might have selected or ticked the box for a female instead. Holding on to this, he later realized that the results now tallied after a while. Upon smelling rat, he enquired how that can happen in a matter of minutes? The explanation given him was that, the University Management have corrected the discrepancy. It is a shame that UITS and Management would tamper a “supposed discrepancy” in an election in an advanced University like KNUST. I can only infer that some machinations, shenanigans, and backdoor schemes were at play. This questions the credibility and integrity of the UITS and Management in student elections.
- In every election that has been observed across the globe, when polls close, the last person in the queue is allowed to cast before counting starts. Polls closed at 5:00pm yesterday, people were still in the queue to cast their vote. All these students despite walking through the rain and queuing for long hours were prevented from voting. I find this act very discommoding, discriminatory, insulting and an infringement on student rights. This never happens anywhere and certainly not in a cosmopolitan community like KNUST. This kind of injustice must not find room to prevail.
This University is bigger than all of us. And my interest as a student is meaningless unless it is tied with the collective interest of the entire student body. I therefore urge our supporters to remain calm as we respectfully call on the University Council, Vice Chancellor, Pro-VC and the Dean of Students to seek redress on the matter.
To this effect, I STRONGLY REJECT the outcome of yesterday’s KNUST SRC PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. My strong room agent refused to sign the document that certifies the results for elections after the UITS Director and authorities could not clarify the inconsistencies he identified. I do not want to believe the rumor that “a cabal from above have a way of manipulating election results in KNUST no matter how hard you try”. Our reputation is on the line, the soul of the SRC is on the line, student rights are on the line. Injustice should not be tolerated. I still believe in the students of KNUST and our ability to rewrite the story of the SRC and my undying and fiery passion to serve students run high even in these trying times.
God Bless Our Homeland Ghana
God Bless KNUST
Signed:
DSK ACQUAAH JNR