Lydia Seyram Alhassan N
OFFICIAL
RESULTS declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) has shown that Lydia Seyram
Alhassan, wife of the late Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, has won the Ayawaso
West Wuogon Constituency by-election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP) with 12,041 votes representing 68.8 percent of total votes cast.
The election
held on Thursday, January 31, 2019 within the Greater Accra Region, became
necessary to fill the vacancy created in Parliament following the death of her
husband who was the NPP’s MP for the area.
At the close
of polls which was characterized by several reports of violence and gunshots
fired at some individuals, Madam Alhassan was declared winner by the EC.
She beat her
closest contender, Delali Brempong of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
whose party said in the early hours of the elections that it was pulling out of
the race because its members were allegedly being attacked by members of the
vigilante grouping, Invincible Forces which is believed to be aligned to the
ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr. Brempong
polled 5, 341 votes representing 30.52 percent of total votes cast.
Aside Madam
Alhassan fondly called Maa Lydia and Mr. Brempong, other contestants for the
race were PPP’s William Doworkpor who had 102 votes representing 0.38 percent
and LPG’s Clement Boadi who garnered 17 votes representing 0.10 percent.
Total votes
cast, according to the EC was 17,589, out a total of 88,710 registered voters.
There was a reported 19.83 percent turn-out.
Ayawaso West
Wuogon Constituency is historically an NPP stronghold and the NDC was seeking
to end the ruling party’s 22-year’s rule of the area but again it (NDC) crashed
after several alleged desperate ploys to discredit the outcome of the election,
apparently after preempting defeat.
The NDC’s
candidate polled over 5,000 votes even though his party had announced earlier
that it was boycotting the election but interestingly its supporters
‘defiantly’ went ahead to vote.
The NDC’s MP
for Ningo-Prampram, Sam George was seen in a video being given hot slaps by a
security operative, after he had earlier announced on Facebook that several
ammunitions were fired at him.
The same Sam
George had reported that someone had been shot dead in the residence of the
NDC’s failed candidate but it turned out to be a complete lie, as the Police
Administration issued a statement later flatly debunking the claim.
Coalition of
Domestic Election Observes (CODEO) which deployed observers at the polls
praised the performance of the EC but however, condemned the violence that
marred the polls.
CODEO in a post-election statement, observed lack of security coordination as well as ‘unnecessary’ heavy security presence at some of the 137 polling stations.
BY Melvin Tarlue
