The Electoral Commission (EC) has made the decision to rerun the Yendi Constituency Parliamentary Election of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) due to the inconclusive nature of the initial election.
On Saturday, January 27th, 2024, the NPP Yendi Constituency Parliamentary Primary took place in Yendi.
The polls began at 7:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm.
The election was supervised by the District Electoral Officer and assisted by five other officials of the Electoral Commission.
Two candidates, Honorable Farouk Aliu Mahama and Abibata Shanni Mahama, competed in the election. The total number of voters on the register was 794, with 785 individuals casting their votes. There was one rejected ballot.
After the closure of the polls at 2:00 pm, the sorting of the ballots commenced.
However, during the counting process, an incident occurred that disrupted proceedings. Several individuals accused one of the polling assistants, who was responsible for safeguarding the ballots of Abibata Shanni Mahama, of tampering with the ballots using an ink pad in his pocket. As a result, the polling assistant and other election officials were attacked by these individuals, causing the counting process to come to an abrupt halt.
According to the Presiding Officer’s initial report to the Electoral Commission, he was able to count 296 ballots belonging to Honorable Farouk Aliu Mahama before the disruption occurred.
However, a video forwarded to the EC revealed that only 226 votes were counted prior to the disruption.
Due to the disturbance and subsequent inability to declare a winner, the Yendi Constituency Parliamentary Election was deemed inconclusive. In light of this, the Commission has recommended that the election be re-run to ensure a fair and valid outcome.
Signed by Mr. Samuel Tettey, acting on behalf of the Chairperson.
The EC’s decision to rerun the Yendi Parliamentary Primary aims to rectify the disruption that occurred during the counting process, ultimately ensuring the integrity of the electoral process in the Yendi Constituency.
By Vincent Kubi