AKWAATIA: IT'S NPP (1B)

Story: A. Kofoya-Tetteh & Nana Konadu Agyeman

Dr Kofi Asare of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was yesterday declared the winner of the Akwatia Constituency seat by the Electoral Commission (EC).
He polled a total of 17,900 votes as against 15,860 by Mr Baba Ahmed Jamal of the National Democratic Party (NDC) to come a close second.
This was after the rerun results of yesterday in six polling stations had been added to the results of 83 polling stations in December last year.
At the end of voting yesterday, Dr Asare secured 1,011 votes while Mr Baba Jamal topped the polls with 2,050 votes.
In the December polls, Dr Asare got 16,889 while Mr Jamal secured 13,810 votes. Mr Basil Ahiable and Mr Samuel Abrokwah, both independent candidates got 1,835 votes and 64 votes respectively and Mr Samuel Adjei of the CPP got 109 votes. The latter candidates did not feature in yesterday’s ballot and accordingly got no votes. At the time of filing this report, the atmosphere at Akwatia was peaceful and calm with heavy security presence.
The rerun of the election was occasioned by the alleged snatching of ballot boxes at the six polling stations during the December 7, 2008 general election.
The Koforidua High Court upheld Mr Baba Jamal’s suit for the EC to conduct election in all the 89 polling stations and not only the six affected ones, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling and ordered the EC to conduct the rerun in only the six troubled polling stations, when Dr Asare took the case before it.
The total number of registered voters in the six out of the 89 polling stations was 4,581.
Earlier in the day, the mounting tension between the NDC and the NPP had subsided.
That was after a peace walk by the national executive of the two political parties.
The walk, jointly led by the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, and the National Chairman of the NPP, Mr Peter Mac Manu, took the group to all six polling stations where they urged the voters who had formed queues not to fight but to vote for the candidate of their choice.
Mr Asiedu-Nketiah, who held the hand of Mr Mac Manu, said the leadership of the two political parties had come together to ensure a peaceful election at Akwatia.
He said the NDC at first did not believe that the elections at only six polling stations could lead to violence as occurred last Sunday and that the Akwatia elections should not divide the people.
For his part, Mr Mac Manu said there should not be any acrimony between the NPP and the NDC, since they were all one people.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who later joined the group, expressed his appreciation to the leadership of the two parties for their initiative to calm the tension and ensure peace in the area.
Earlier, there had been confusion at Yuroba Mosque A Polling Station when the Electoral Commission (EC) officials, led by Mr David Kanga, a Deputy Chairman of the commission, tactfully turned away some people who had wanted to vote twice from the polling station.
Events leading to the rerun of the election had been characterised by scuffles between supporters of the NPP and those of the NDC.
The volatile political situation at Akwatia prompted the police to fire tear gas on some occasions last Sunday, to disperse supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who had massed up in the streets possibly for a showdown.
The events compelled the Ministry of the Interior to impose a curfew on Akwatia and the Eastern Regional Security Council to call for the postponement of the election.
However, President Mills lifted the curfew and overruled the proposal by the Eastern Regional Security Council for the postponement of the election.