Asare elected Member of Parliament for Akwatia

Akwatia (E/R), Aug. 19, GNA - Dr Kofi Asare, the New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Candidate for the Akwatia constituency was declared elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency by the Electoral Commission (EC) at the end of the re-run of the elections in six polling stations in the constituency on Tuesday.

He polled 17,900 votes to defeat the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Ahmed Mohammed Baba-Jamal, who polled 15,860, with Mr Samuel Adjei, candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP) polling 109 votes, an independent candidate; Mr Basil Ahiable polled 1,335 votes while Mr Samuel Abrokwah also an independent candidate polled 64 votes.

The re-run became necessary when some unidentified persons over run the six polling stations and succeeded in vandalizing ballot boxes and voting materials.

During the re-run, though all the five candidates were participating, the race was reduced to a contest between Dr Asare and Mr Baba-Jamal, who is also the Deputy Minister for the Eastern Region. Apart from the two who had votes, the remaining three contestants scored zero votes at all the six polling stations.

At the Presbyterian Junior High School (JHS) Polling Station, Dr Asare had 476 votes, while Mr Baba-Jamal had 248; two votes were rejected while 33 votes were detected to be fake ballot papers. At Lorry Station "A" Polling Station, Dr Asare had 80 votes while Mr Baba-Jamal has 348 votes and at Lorry Station "B" polling station, Dr Asare had 102 votes while Mr Baba-Jamal had 339 and four votes were rejected.

At AME Zion Polling Station, Dr Asare had 150 votes and Baba-Jamal got 114 votes, while at Yoruba Mosque "B" Polling Station, Dr Asare polled 65 votes, Baba Jamal polled 517 votes, five votes were rejected and 17 votes were detected to be fake ballot papers and at Yoruba Mosque "A", Dr Asare had 138 votes while Mr Baba Jamal polled 484 votes, nine votes were rejected and 20 votes were detected to be fake ballot papers. In all, at the end of the re-run, Dr Asare had 1,011 votes while Mr Baba-Jamal polled 2,050.

Before the re-run, Dr Asare was leading the polls with 16,889 votes and was followed by Mr Baba-Jamal with 13,810 votes, Mr Ahiable had 1, 835 votes, Mr Adjei , 109 votes and Mr Abrokwah, 64 votes.