NPP Ablekuma West Electoral album in contention

An appreciable understanding is yet to be reached between executives and party faithful of the opposition New Patriotic Party in the Ablekuma West Constituency of the Greater Accra Region, where primaries were held Saturday.

Near to an imploding Party rancour is the case of an alleged ‘fraudulent’ electoral album used for last weekend’s elections.

A good number of the electorates have raised red flags over the album, which the Director of Elections, Martin Korsah, has since confirmed was merged before the polls.

A controversial win for the incumbent Ursula Owusu, she polled some 554 votes (representing 63.60%) to beat her only contender in the race, Roni Nicole, who garnered 317 (representing 36.40%) of the total valid votes cast.

But the win has since been ridiculed. She was alleged to have entered into the contest with her own voters’ register of over 600 delegates which was sanctioned by the National Executives much to the detriment of her other contestants.

The contest was expected to have been held some months earlier but had to be postponed due to series of court injunctions.

The electoral album was the bone of contention.

Former party Chairman of the area, Theophilus Tetteh, who was one of the contestants, had to withdraw from the race at the last minute due to the supposed hand-twisting tactics he said was adopted by the National Executives in support of Madama Owusu.

On the eve of the polls, Mr. Tetteh, together with thirteen other executives announced their resignation from the party.

However speaking on Kasapa FM’s morning show, Anopa Kasapa, Monday, a former chairman of the party in the constituency, William Kofi Akapo, justified the adoption of a merged electoral album, insisting it followed a precedence.

Justifying why the few dissenting voices should be ignored, he argued that the same style was adopted when he was chairman, adding the election that saw him out of office was done with a merged album.

He told Anopa Kasapa host Fiifi Banson the claims by the disgruntled chairman Theophilus Tetteh may be unwarranted and not in good faith.

“During my time, we had this same kind of challenge. He claimed at the time that the album we were using were only made up of my people. Later, we agreed that he could also come up with his album. It became a protracted legal tussle, which eventually saw a meeting being called at the instance of late national chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey. So we went into the constituency elections with the two albums, which meant the Electoral College was expanded. He won. So I am surprised he is having issues with a system he once benefited from. It is the same thing that was adopted this year.”