Disputed Ablekuma North Election: Residents give account of how ballot boxes were burnt

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Residents of Kwashieman in the Ablekuma North Constituency of the Greater Accra Region woke up to find their Anglican Primary and JHS School, which was used to store electoral materials for the recently concluded December 7, 2024, election, in flames.

Some of the residents who spoke to GhanaWeb’s team that visited the scene were confused about the cause of the fire.

Eyewitnesses reported that the fire started around 12:00 am on Monday, December 17, 2024.

One of the eyewitnesses, Afua Mensa, a food vendor at the park adjacent to the school, said that residents began calling the Ghana Fire Service after noticing the flames from the school building.

She mentioned that although they were unsure about how the fire started, they suspected it was related to the electoral materials stored at the school.

“We don’t know who is behind it, but there are rumours that it is connected to the electoral materials being stored there,” she said in the Ga dialect.

GhanaWeb’s team encountered officials from the Central Investigation Bureau (CID) of the Ghana Police Service collecting information at the scene of the incident.

At least 10 rooms of a storey building at the school were affected by the fire outbreak, with six rooms being completely burnt.

The Ablekuma North Constituency is one of four constituencies in the Greater Accra Region whose parliamentary election declaration has been deemed illegal by the Electoral Commission of Ghana and must be recollated.

Officials of the commission declared Ewurabena Aubynn of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) the winner of the constituency's parliamentary election, beating the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh.

Watch the full report below: