Legal practitioner wrestles power from incumbent Chiana-Paga MP, Abuga Pele

A former National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Agency, NYEP now GYEEDA, Abuga Pele yesterday lost narrowly to 48 year old Private legal practitioner, Lawyer Rudolf Nsowine Amengo-Etego in a keenly contested Chiana-Paga NDC Parliamentary Primary. 

Mr Pele who also the sitting MP for the area polled 4, 177 of the total valid votes cast as against Lawyer Amengo-Etego, who bagged 4,337 votes. 

The declaration of results supervised by officials of the EC saw the veteran lawyer wrestling power from the incumbent.   

The other contestant, Jonathan Nyaaba, an Agriculturalist and a development expert polled 825 votes as against the 9,339 total valid votes cast. 

Rejected votes stood at 410 while total votes recorded 9,749.   

Voting began in all the 58 polling centres across the constituency which is by far the largest constituency in the Upper East Region followed by Bawku Municipal.  

 It began at exactly 7:00 am and ended at 5:00 pm.   

About 13,062 delegates including the sitting MP took part in the electoral exercise. 

The third candidate, Jonathan Nyaaba, polled 825 votes. 

Challenges with regards to the electoral process

The electoral process was saddled with some minor challenges. 

Few people were not able to cast their vote because their names were not captured in the voters register. 

 One of the parliamentary aspirants, Jonathan Nyaaba happens to be victim.

 He was supposed to cast his vote at Kandiga Longo polling station but was denied voting by the electoral officer in charge, John Ayuumba since his name was not found in the register.  

 In reaction, Mr Nyaaba told Radio Ghana’s Isaac Asare that he detected the anomaly two weeks ago and subsequently informed the Director of Elections at the party’s office, one Magnus with the assurance that it will be worked on, only for him to come to be denied the opportunity to exercise his franchise.  

 At Longo polling station where they have an expected voter population of 163, persons whose names were captured in the voter registration book but were without any of the required ID cards were only allowed to vote after being able to call out their voters ID numbers. 

Earlier, the Regional Secretary of the party, Donatus Akamugri also brought to fore some few challenges. Key among them was the decision taken by the party to create an additional polling station at a community called Kurugu whose polling station was mistakenly located at Akamo. 

This generated some form of misunderstanding among the people. 

The community members at Kurugu raised concerns to the effect that that the electorates at Krugu primary were higher than those at Akamo, therefore, there was no need moving the centre to Akamo.

Mr Akamugri said for the intervention of the leadership of the party in consultation with the regional office of the EC and the aspirants, it was agreed that a new polling station be created at Kurugu. 

In the course of the voting exercise, a directive was sent across the various centres instructing people without any of the required ID cards to vote provided they have their names and photos in the register.  

 Despite the isolated cases hitches, the electoral process was smooth and relatively peaceful.

GBC