THE National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Kwabre West in the Ashanti Region, Mr Pius Opoku Boateng, has been jailed 12 months in hard labour for engaging in double registration.
Mr Boateng pleaded guilty with explanation to the charge of undertaking double registration when he appeared before the circuit court at Offinso yesterday.
He told the court that he lost his voter’s identity card and, therefore, decided to register again at his new residence in the Kwabre West Constituency where he was also contesting the parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NDC.
According to the court, Mr Boateng registered first at the Nkuakua-buoho Polling Station in Kwabre West and again at the Patasi Chief’s Palace Polling Station in Afigya Sekyere West.
He, however, maintained the same name and pictures but used different ages to register. While he gave his age as 55 at the Nkuakua-buoho Polling Station, he registered at the Patasi Chief’s Palace Polling Station with 54.
The police arrested the convict on Monday after the District Electoral Commission had detected the anomaly and lodged a complaint with the police.
During police investigations, it came out that the convict’s name had appeared twice in the voters register in two different constituencies.
The District Electoral Officer, Mr Emmanuel Addai, who briefed the Daily Graphic on the conviction, said he had received complaints a few days ago that Boateng had registered at two different polling stations.
He said he decided to investigate, and in the course of the investigations found out that the convict had registered in two different constituencies.
He said he also detected that the convict had gone to check his name during the last voters register exhibition exercise and had also taken pains to make all the necessary corrections to enable him to participate in the December elections.
Mr Addai said based on the outcome of his investigations, he reported the incident to the police, who effected Boateng’s arrest.
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