NDC wins Amenfi West by-election
Mr. Eric Afful, a 41-year-old economist and candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) emerged victorious in the Wassa Amenfi West by-election held on Tuesday.
He polled 15,809 votes representing 52.64 per cent of the total valid votes cast.
Mr. Afful defeated three other aspirants in a keenly contested election.
His closest contender, Lawyer Paul Dekyi of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) polled 13,076 votes representing 43.54 per cent, while Mr. Abraham Kojo Buadee of the Progressive People’s Party garnered 1,032 votes representing 3.44 per cent, with Mr. Elvis Adjei of the United Front Party coming at the bottom with 113 votes representing 0.38 per cent.
The District Electoral Officer, Mr. Prosper Dedi announced the results at the collation centre at Assankrangwa and declared Mr. Afful as the winner of the poll, after the 102 polling stations in the constituency had been validated.
In all, 30,030 valid votes were recorded out of 62,364 registered voters in the constituency.
The by-election, which recorded a voter turn-out of 49 per cent with 531 rejected ballots, was necessitated by the death of the incumbent NDC Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. John Gyetuah on October 13, 2015.
The constituency had been a safe seat for the NDC since 1992 except in 2003 when Madam Agnes Asomfo won the seat for the NPP after the then NDC MP, Kofi Asante resigned. Since then the ruling party has maintained a stronghold on the seat for the past 12 years.
Earlier in the day, the Western Regional Director of the Electoral Commission, Mr. Steven Opoku-Mensah, told the media that the election was smooth and peaceful except for a swap of the voters’ registers of Breman and Wiredukrom, two adjoining polling stations in the area, but it was quickly resolved when the two presiding officers detected the anomaly.
He said voting was very encouraging in the morning, with some queues witnessed in some polling stations but dwindled later in the day around 1500 hours.
Some EC officials indicated that the situation could also be attributed to the fact that Tuesday was market day in the district which saw some traders busily selling their wares and food stuffs.
There were allegations of rioting at some polling stations in the constituency including Nkwantanum, Nsabrakwa and Nyame N’dae where “Bamba boys”, a radical group linked to the NPP allegedly prevented some voters from casting their vote.
Source: GNA