The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has officially declared Edem Agbana as the winner of the party’s parliamentary primaries in Ketu North constituency in the Volta Region.
The declaration was made known on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, by the NDC’s General Secretary, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey.
Following a deadlock in Saturday’s primaries, between Edem Agbana and John Adanu Zewu as the main contenders, a state of confusion emerged.
Initially, Edem Agbana was announced as the winner by a mere single vote. However, after two recounts, the Electoral Commission (EC) uncovered three ballot papers that had not been stamped, causing further uncertainty.
2 of the 3 unstamped ballots were cast in favour of Edem Agbana whilst 1 unstamped ballot was cast in favour of John Adanu.
Edem in an earlier statement insisted that he was the winner though the electoral management body Electoral Commission (EC) had not declared so.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Fifi Kwetey explained that the said unstamped ballot papers were part of the original ballot booklet provided by the party hence there was no over-voting on the day.
“By and large, we got a consensus coming across the table that the ballot papers [in question] were an integral part of the booklet of ballots that came from the national office that went to that constituency. And therefore they were not foreign materials. We also checked and saw that there was no overvoting. The tallying process done by the agents of the candidates tallied with all the ballot papers found in the ballot box.”
“These for us were the pieces of information we wanted to ascertain. So the ballot papers were authentic… Following this, we are of the position that, the will that the voters expressed is the authentic will of the people. That original result had candidate Edem Agbana having 360 votes followed very closely by candidate John Adanu who had 359. Very close as it was, we had to go by the will of the people of Ketu North.”
“So we want to tell you that, at the end of the day, the committee headed by the National Chairman of the NDC, aided by my own self…that the will of Ketu North was that Edem Agbana was the one that won the most number of votes on the day. Even though it was that close, Edem Agbana will be declared the winner,” Fifi Kwetey added.
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