EC office in Fomena on fire

The office of the Electoral Commission in the Fomena Constituency in the early hours of Tuesday was up in flames.

It is unclear what caused the incident but reports suggest it happened at the time some youth in the area were very agitated.

Reports suggest that the disgruntled youth had attempted to enter the Collation Centre because they had received information the EC was about to declare the results.

Security officers at post, according to reports, intervened. JoyNews reporter Nana Yaw Gyimah reports that the EC office which is about 200 metres away from the coalition centre was later engulfed by fire.

The incident has been brought under control as the fire service has succeeded in dousing the flame.

Fomena Constituency has been in the spotlight after the incumbent Member of Parliament Andrews Asiamah who was on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) decided to contest as an independent candidate.

Mr. Asiamah took the decision after he lost the party’s parliamentary primaries to Philip Ofori Asante. The legislator ignored attempts by the party to get him to rescind his decision, a posture President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was unhappy about.

The NPP wrote to Parliament asking the leadership of the house to expel the MP. The Speaker of Parliament on November 7 declared the seat vacant saying, “having forfeited his membership of the party on whose ticket he was elected to parliament, the operative language of the constitution is that he shall, which is mandatory vacate his seat in parliament.

"Going by a purposive interpretation of the current law, consultative actions on the part of the MP are important. To all intents and purposes, he is no longer a member of the party, he has pronounced himself publicly as an independent and has filed his papers to compete against the party and its candidate as an independent candidate on December 7, 2020.”

Meanwhile, certified results say Mr. Asiamah has won the contest. Philip Ofori Asante of the NPP, is said to have polled 10,798. Christina Ama of the NDC polled 2,608. Appiagyei Eric had 158 votes while Andrews Asiamah garnered 12,805.