Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Monday, April 11, 2016
New Patriotic Party
(NPP) delegates at Ablekuma West in the Greater Accra Region last Saturday
retained Ursula Owusu-Ekuful as their parliamentary candidate in a primary that
was mired in controversy.
She polled 554 to
defeat her main challenger, Robert Kwesi Hayfron, popularly called Roni Nicole,
who garnered 317 votes at the Dansoman Divisional Police Command premises amid
tight security after the third candidate, Theophilus Tetteh, had pulled out at
the eleventh hour.
In all, 1,168
delegates were expected to cast their ballots but only 876 turned up to vote;
and Joseph Addo Boakye of the Electoral Commission (EC) announced after the
declaration of the results that there was no rejected or spoilt ballot.
Delayed Process
The Ablekuma West
NPP primary had delayed for many months due to a protracted court dispute over
who was eligible to vote as a delegate.
There had been a
sharp disagreement over the compilation of the delegates’ register between the
camp of Ursula and that of a former party chairman of the constituency,
Theophilus Tetteh aka Theo, who withdrew from the contest at the vetting stage
and announced on Friday night that he and 13 others were resigning from the
NPP.
Those who said they
had resigned included the acting chairman, his vice, women's organiser and ten
other constituency executives.
However, the organiser
and his deputy were at post and the election proceeded as scheduled.
After the contest,
there were rumours that Theo wanted to contest as independent candidate in
November.
He had asked a court
last Friday to place an injunction on the election but the court did not oblige.
The National
Executive Committee (NEC) of the party had approved the primary following the
resolution of a protracted legal battle over the exercise last year.
Highly-Charged Process
Ahead of the
highly-charged process, there had been accusations and counter-accusations
between the MP’s supporters and other executives over the right register for
the election, but when Theo withdrew from the race, it became a straight fight
between the MP and Roni.
Roni’s Concession
Roni, who was
celebrating his birthday on the election day, did not even wait for the
counting to be completed when he walked straight to Ursula and congratulated
her after realising the MP had crossed the 450 threshold.
He later said he was
prepared to support Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful to retain the seat and added that
he would contest again another time.
“This was a keen
contest and I accept the verdict of the delegates. I also would like to assure
the leadership of the party that my supporters and I are going to campaign for
Hon Ursula to retain this seat and get Nana Akufo-Addo to become President,” Roni
pledged.
He underscored
further, “There is always a second time and I would come back to contest this
seat in the next primary.”
NPP Director of
Elections, Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, who supervised the process throughout,
said later that the election had been conducted in an orderly manner, in spite
of some pockets of heated exchanges among party supporters.
According to Mr Adjei
Mensah Korsah, two albums were merged into one, which was used in Saturday's
election. “It is therefore completely erroneous, as some seek to suggest after
the merger, that two separate albums existed for the election,” he pointed out.
Street Procession
After the
declaration, supporters of Ursula hit the General Acheampong High Street in
Dansoman on a procession before converging at the NPP Ablekuma West Constituency
office at Exhibition, Dansoman, for Ursula to address them.
She later told the
jubilant supporters that she would work hard to retain the seat for the party,
adding that they would intensify the campaign to increase the votes of Nana
Akufo-Addo as presidential candidate.
She said, “The time
to work has come… It is time for us to come together as one party, united
behind the candidate, to work hard to retain the seat and to maximise votes for
our presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo.
“NPP is winning the
general election and every single one of our members ought to be part of the
victory which is imminent.
“I open my heart and
my home and my hands out to everybody in the constituency and I am even looking
forward to the NDC members in the constituency coming to join us because they
know the calibre of Member of Parliament that they have and they have also
assured me that they would assist me to continue the good work,” she posited.
Ursula commended
Roni for being magnanimous in defeat, saying, “I thank Mr Robert Kwesi Nicole
for giving me a run for my money and he got quite a few more votes than I
thought he would. I will appeal to Theophilus Tetteh and his supporters to
reconsider their decision in the interest of the party. I thank every member of
my team; I thank the almighty God for letting this grace and favour shine on
me.”
There are 123 polling
stations and five electoral areas in Ablekuma West.
As it is, it is
going to be a straight fight between Ursula and the ruling National Democratic
Congress’ (NDC’s) candidate, Mrs Diana Twum.
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