Edem Agbana declared winner of Ketu North NDC primary
The Functional Executive Committee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has declared Edem Agbana as the winner of the party’s parliamentary primary in the Ketu North Constituency of the Volta Region.
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This was announced by the General Secretary of the NDC, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, at a press conference in Accra yesterday.
Mr 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; therefore, they were not foreign materials.
We also checked and saw that there was no over-voting.
The tallying process done by the agents of the candidates tallied with all the ballot papers found in the ballot box,” he said.
“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,” he added.
“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 myself…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,” Mr Kwetey added.
Recall
There was confusion after last Saturday’s primary between the two main contenders –Edem Agbana and John Adanu Zewu– following a tie.
Mr Agbana was initially declared the winner by a single vote, but upon two recounts, the EC discovered three ballot papers that were not stamped.
Two of the three unstamped ballots were cast in favour of Edem Agbana while one unstamped ballot was cast in favour of John Adanu.
Mr Agbana in an earlier statement insisted that he was the winner though the Electoral Commission (EC) had not declared so.
Unity
After his declaration as the winner of the Ketu North parliamentary primary, Mr Agbana, a former Deputy Youth Organiser of the NDC, told journalists that he was not going to jubilate but to work with all stakeholders, including his opponent to ensure that the party secures a resounding victory in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.