Ursula Owusu wins Ablekuma West NPP polls

• Posted on April 9, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Incumbent Member of Parliament Ursula Owusu Ekuful has won the New Patriotic Party primary for Ablekuma West Constituency.

In a contest riddled with controversy, Mrs Ekuful polled 554 votes with Roni Nicole polling 317 votes. Five ballots were rejected

Both candidates had their names missing in the electoral register and were turned away from voting but the incumbent was later allowed to vote because by the party’s regulation, MPs and national executives have the right to vote even if their names are not in the album.

In a gesture that will bode for team work in a troubled constituency, Nicole conceded defeat to his compatriot shortly after polls but that was the brightest spot in the primary delayed for several months.

Ablekuma West was one of few constituencies that were exempted in the nationwide NPP primaries held last year to elect parliamentary candidates for the 2016 elections.

There were issues with the voter albums to be used for the election, there were accusations, counter accusations from some of the candidates in the elections, with others even threatening to go to court. These controversies kept the elections from being held.

Just when the dust appeared to have settled, the controversy resurfaced on the eve of the election primary.

All but two of the constituency executives resigned en masse, accusing the National Executive Council of the party of manipulating to have Ursula Owusu, who is the favorite of the party’s flagbearer, to win.

The acting chairman, his vice, women’s organiser and ten other constituency executives resigned ahead of the polls.

Only  the organizer and his deputy were left at the post but that did not stop the elections from going on.

As if that was not enough, another candidate, Theophilus Tetteh who was the immediate past constituency chairman pulled out accusing the NEC of supporting the incumbent. He threatened to go independent.

Some 1,200 delegates were expected to vote to elect a new Parliamentary candidate but only 876 voted.

At 8:30 am hundreds of the delegates turned out to vote, Joy News’ Latif Iddris reported.

Around 3:30 pm voting ended and after sorting and counting the Electoral Commission declared the incumbent winner of the election and will now face NDC’s Madam Diana Twum and other candidates in the November Parliamentary polls.

-joyonline.