The incumbent Member of Parliament for Yendi in the Northern Region, Farouk Aliu Mahama, has been declared winner of the parliamentary primary held on Saturday. Farouk becomes the parliamentary candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the Yendi constituency for the December 2024 election.
The 3rd National Vice Chairman of the NPP, Alhaji Osman Masawudu, made the declaration in Yendi after a consultation with the regional and national executives of the party.
According to him, the EC official had counted 296 votes in favor of the incumbent MP before the counting process was interrupted.
He revealed that the ballot papers in the possession of EC officials was 199 and that the ballots were valid.
“With the 296 and the 199 total votes for Farouk Aliu Mahama that makes it 495 votes out of the total 785 votes so therefore I stand on behalf of the party as a national officer to declare Farouk Aliu Mahama as the parliamentary candidate for the Yendi constituency”.
Earlier, an EC official stationed at the Yendi New Patriotic Party primary was arrested by the police for allegedly pocketing ballot papers during the counting process.
The situation created some confusion at the venue which halted the counting process due to the destruction of the counted ballot papers and some election materials.
Supporters of the Chief Executive Officer for MASLOC, Abibata Shanni Zakariah Mahama, claimed that the ballot papers pocketed by the said EC official belonged to their candidate and used indelible ink to destroy some of their ballot papers and therefore attacked him.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Chief Executive Officer for MASLOC, Sahni Mutala, have rejected the declaration of Farouk Aliu Mahama as the parliamentary candidate elect.
“As long as we are concern, Mrs. Abibata Shanni Zakariah is the winner in the Yendi NPP primary”.
He accused the regional executives of the NPP of sabotaging the candidature of the MASLOC boss, in the primary.
BY Eric Kombat, Yendi