Ayawaso Violence: We have a lot of irresponsible politicians – Kwesi Pratt

The violence which occurred during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election was as a result of the huge number of irresponsible politicians in the country, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has said.

According to the seasoned journalist, even though the country has experienced several instances of electoral violence in the past, the recent one denigrates the nation’s democratic process and is uncalled for.

“I’m so so embarrassed that in 2019 we can visit this level of violence on innocent citizens, under the guise of national security, I’m so thoroughly embarrassed,” he said with disappointments.

"We got here because we have a lot of irresponsible politicians, we got here because of the level of intolerance we that we have built in national politics, we got here because people do not see politicking in a multiparty democratic dispensation as having different viewpoint and different programs for national reconstruction,” he added.

The Managing Editor of 'The Insight' Newspaper who was Speaking on Metro TV’s Good evening Ghana, recounted several instances of political violence in the nation’s political history which according to him does not in any way “justify violence now and in the future.”

Background

The conduct of the polls was marred by a shooting incident at the residence of one of the aspirants, Mr Brempong; which resulted in injuries to 18 persons and an assault on an observer at one of the polling stations.

The Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service has commenced investigations into the shooting incident.



By-Election Result

Madam Lydia Seyram Alhassan replaced her husband as the Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency after winning the by-election held on Thursday, 31st January 2019 in Accra.

Madam Alhassan, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, was the second wife of the late MP Mr Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko.

She polled 68.80 per cent of the valid votes cast.

Her closest challenger, Mr Kwasi Delali Brempong of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) polled 30.52 per cent while Mr William Kofi Dowokpor of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and Mr Clement Boadi of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) polled 0.58 and 0.10 per cent respectively.