David Odarquaye wins Ablekuma North NPP chairmanship
Losing candidate concedes after raising objection about results in Ablekuma North
The Ablekuma North Constituency on day two of the New Patriotic Party’s 2022 Annual Delegates Conference, elected executives to steer the affairs of the party for the next four years.
Despite having a relatively smooth process in the election, the announcement of the winners by the Electoral Commission delayed for a while after one of the candidates in the chairmanship race raised objection about the collated results.
In the four-men contest, Obed Asamoah Antwi polled 103 votes, George Nkrumah who was the incumbent chairman polled 172 votes, Mohammed Labaran who was the closest contender polled 504 while David Odarquaye Alemah polled 606 total votes.
Right after the counting had concluded, Mohammed Labaran and his agents stormed the counting area raising objection about the result.
According to them, their data of voter turnout was lesser than the total number of recorded votes implying that there had been an incident of overvoting.
This led to a tensed moment of confrontation between officials of the Electoral Commission and the losing candidate and his agents.
The police however maintained law and order and ensured peace prevailed in the end with Mohammed Labaran finally conceding defeat.
According to the losing candidate, his decision to concede defeat lied in the interest of the party and its collective ultimate objective of retaining power in 2024.
“After the declaration we realized the number of people who voted today; when you add the number of candidates, what we got to the number of people who voted, you could see that the number of all the candidates put together exceed the number of people who actually voted today.
“We tried raising it before the committee, it is like they are not ready to listen so we just leave everything. So maybe we will try again another time.
On what informed his decision, Mr Labaran said “you know we are all under this big elephant (NPP) so for us not to wash our dirty linen outside and you know we have this intention of breaking the 8. So I wouldn’t want to do anything that will further deepen the polarization that has engulfed us in the constituency. So I am looking forward to we coming together so that we can form a united front to face the breaking the 8 that we are all touting about.”
The winning candidate on his part expressed delight about the results stating that “I feel very happy. This has been the third time. I went for secretary, I didn’t succeed. Then I contested chairmanship last year four years. So this is my third time contesting in this constituency and it is my first time having a constituency executive position.”
On what are his main objectives for the Ablekuma North NPP, David Odarquaye outlined that his wish is to unite the party and ensure proper planning and execution to led the party to success."
