The Member of Parliament for Asawase, in the Ashanti Region, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has given reasons as to why his constituency was the last one to declare results of the just-ended National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries.
The NDC held its presidential and parliamentary primaries on Saturday, May 13, 2023, where it elected parliamentary candidates in the 275 constituencies of the country and a presidential candidate for the 2024 general elections.
While the elections were generally concluded to be peaceful, there were delays in the Asawase constituency, which is one of the few strongholds of the NDC in the Ashanti Region.
Speaking in an interview with TV3 after the elections, Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak explained that, while he does not understand it, he felt that his party was unfair to his constituency when it came to the distribution of ballot papers.
Sending a caution to the party, he explained that the delay in the distribution of the parliamentary ballot sheets in Asawase led to it becoming the last one to declare results from the polls.
“It’s been a very difficult contest, not because they contest itself was difficult, but because there were so many interferences by people who are outside the constituency… and if you remember, on that day; I’ve been involved in electoral processes for a long period of time… I can say that all the way from 1997, I’ve always been involved in elections in this constituency, but this was shocking for me.
“That, one, if you want to prioritise 47 constituencies for NDC in the Ashanti Region, everybody knows that Asawase is number one, because that is where we have the largest votes, followed by Ejura, New Edubiase, and Sekyere Afram Plains.
“For whatever reason, how could you move the ballot papers for presidential for Asawase and leave the parliamentary? And that culminated into the excessive delay that you saw, and that led to this very delay. I think the whole of this country, Asawase was the last to declare, and I think that you don’t throw the baby with the bath water,” he explained.
The former Minority Chief Whip in Parliament also said that the issues that were recorded in Asawase must be taken into account and dealt with appropriately, or else it could spell wrongly for the party in the future.
He added that having peace in Asawase, which is the strongest seat of the National Democratic Congress in the Ashanti Region, is the only way to secure the future of the seat for them.
“We need to be very careful as a party because if we allow individuals, whether hatred or dislike, to do things that, at the end of the day, almost mar. can you imagine if something nasty had happened in Asawase? It was not only going to end with the primaries, but it was going to affect the NDC fortunes in Asawase,” he added.
Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka was keenly contested for his seat by Masawudu Mubarick, but the MP retained the seat with a total vote count of 1,063, as against 735 for his contender.
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Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka is the MP for Asawase
