NPP retains Tema seats
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has retained its parliamentary seats in the three constituencies within the Tema metropolis.
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The three constituencies, with a total of 268,290 registered voters, registered a huge voter turnout, with Tema West recording 65.84 per cent turnout.
Of the 114,502 registered voters in the constituency, 74,902 people voted in the 166 polling stations scattered across the constituency, while 245 ballots were rejected.
Tema West
Although the collation of results was still underway as at press time, provisional figures put the NPP’s Mr Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah in a comfortable lead with 44,579 votes, representing 59.32 per cent of total votes cast.
His closest contender, Mr James Enu of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), polled 29,742 votes, representing 39.58 per cent of the total votes cast.
Mr Ahenkorah’s win increased the margin widely from that of his predecessor, Ms Irene Naa Torshie Addo, who polled 39,950 votes in 2012 as against the then NDC candidate, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, who lost in a narrow margin, polling 39,005 votes, with a difference of 945.
The candidates of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Convention People’s Party (CPP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP) recorded 404, 98 and 78 votes, respectively.
Tema East
At Tema East, the NPP’s Daniel Titus-Glover increased his three votes margin of victory he recorded in 2012 by winning with 31,782 votes, beating his closest contender, Mr Kempes Ofosuware, who obtained 27,757 votes, stretching the lead to some 4,025.
The CPP, and an independent candidate, Mr Theophilus Ankama Densu-Tetteh, polled 229 and 408 votes, respectively, while some 498 ballots were rejected.
There were near clashes when the Returning Officer for the constituency, Mr Samuel Jerry Ankomah, who was not present when the results were collated, called for a re-collation of some 146 polling station results of the 148 centres across the constituency.
His suggestion, however, did not go down well with the supporters of the NPP candidate who vehemently opposed the idea and attempted to remove the collation tables from the centre.
It took the police some 45 minutes to bring the situation under control, while the Returning Officer was also whisked away and brought back to the centre after about two hours and insisted that the right thing ought to be done.
The candidates and their supporters later reached a compromise with the Returning Officer after which the ballots were re-collated and the winner declared.
Tema Central
At Tema Central, confusion characterised the collation process when the electoral officers mistakenly recorded NPP candidate Kofi Brako’s votes for the CPP candidate.
The anomaly was, however, rectified and Mr Brako who polled 28,334 votes beat his contender from the NDC, Ms Ebi Bright, who managed to poll 12,973 votes, while the CPP candidate polled 209 votes, with 101 ballots being rejected.
The two leading presidential candidates of the NDC and the NPP also polled some 12,713 and 28,391 votes, respectively.
The collation of results from 227 polling stations in the Ashaiman Constituency was underway at the District Police headquarters as of press time.