NPP election: Delegate dies after declaration of results

A delegate of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has died following the declaration of results in the ongoing constituency elections in the Upper East Region.

Confirming the incident to JoyNews’ on Saturday, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the party, Anthony Anamoo said the name of the deceased is Paul Amalba Azika; and he was the polling station chairman of Azika class village center.

According to him, the late Paul Amalba, was one of the campaign team members of Awudu Asonga who was vying for the position of the NPP’s Chairman for the constituency.

In his explanation, he disclosed that after the close of polls, counting began in earnest, starting from the youth organizer.

When it got to the counting of the ballots for the position of the constituency chairman, it then emerged that the deceased’s preferred candidate had lost by two votes; even after a recount.

According to Anthony Namoo, this led to the collapse of Paul Amalba, after which he was quickly rushed to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The deceased, according to the Upper East Regional Chairman of the NPP, is survived by a wife and two children.

He added that he paid a visit to the bereaved family, together with some party officials to commiserate with them and express their grief over the death of the delegate, whom he described as “very supportive of the party, and somebody, who for all intents and purposes, had the belief that, Awudu will be the best constituency chairman for the constituency, and so he invested a lot of emotions, energy, and what have you”.

As to why Paul died, Anthony Namoo alleged that, he may have died as a result of the shocking results, and given the fact that Paul had been campaigning throughout the previous night and had not rested well enough.

“The immediate cause that we laymen can say is because of the fact that his candidate did not win”, he stated.

Touching on the reports of a court injunction on the elections in the region, Mr. Anthony Namoo explained that, the injunction was laid on only one constituency, that is the Chiana Paga constituency.

In his explanations, he noted that one of the aspirants for the constituency chairman position in that constituency was disqualified by the vetting committee, after which he proceeded to the court for an ex-parte interlocutory injunction.

Mr. Namoo said that based on the disqualification, the eligible candidate was then supposed to be sworn in, in accordance with the party’s constitution.

He however disclosed that, that did not happen as a result of the injunction, which was served in the afternoon around 2pm.