A group calling itself “Concerned Youth of Ketu North NDC” has expressed disappointment on the part of some party executives in the constituency and the Electoral Commission to deny Edem Agbana, the rightful winner of the just-ended NDC parliamentary primaries.
At a press conference, the group said they would resist any dubious method to overturn the verdict of the delegates that gave their candidate the victory.
Edem Agbana was declared the winner of last Saturday’s elections after registering 360 votes against his main contender, John Kwabla Adanu, who had 359 votes, but his victory was cut short after the EC said it was a tie.
Convener of the group, Faith Kwashigah Tagborlo, in an interaction with journalists, said they would resist oppressors’ trying to deny victory for their candidate.
The group also blamed some constituency executives, calling them ‘the Three Wise Men’ who they claimed, openly declared their support for the various candidates.
“After Edem Agbana declared his intention to contest in the parliamentary primaries in Ketu North, some of them were heard saying that in case Edem Agbana wins the election, they will resign from the party and join the NPP,” alleged part of the statement read.
The statement alleged that the hatred for Edem Agbana and his team was so glaring, hence their diabolic agenda.
Giving their account, Mr Tagborlo said on Saturday after voting had ended and sorting of ballot papers done for counting, the “Three Wise Men re-positioned themselves such that they could easily interfere in the work of the EC officials.”
According to him, 360 votes were validly counted for their candidate and 359 for Mr Adanu with the other six aspirants recording lesser votes after which a recount was conducted proving the same results.
However, Mr Tagborlo said the agent of Mr Adanu refused to sign after the recounted results were recorded.
Subsequently, the EC officials further checked whether all ballot papers were stamped upon an instruction of the party’s Constituency Chair, which revealed two unstamped ballot papers in Mr Agbana’s votes and one in that of Mr Adanu, bringing the figures of both aspirants to a tie.
The group said among other things, that the negligence on the side of the EC cannot be blamed on a particular candidate, and that how come Mr Bismark Adrigbatey, the Constituency Chair knew some ballot papers were unstamped and ordered for the ballots to be cross-check while he was not an agent, leading to the removal of some unstamped ballot papers from the results after a recount.
Meanwhile, Mr James Gunu, the Volta Regional Secretary of the NDC in a statement on Monday, has assured the members of the party in the area that the will of the delegates would not be subverted.
