UPDATE: B.T. Baba is new MP for Talensi

Vincent Amenuveve & Alhandu Abdul-Hamid Politics Jul - 08 - 2015 , 09:13

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate in the Talensi by-election, Mr Benson Tongo Baba, 67, a retired Deputy Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service has recaptured the Talensi seat for the party after he polled 10,366 votes representing 42.31 per cent in a keenly contested by-election Tuesday.

A total of 24,499 valid votes were cast in the by-election out of the 25,385 who cast their votes. Rejected votes were 882 with total percentage turn out of 62.22.

He beat his closest contender, Mr Wuni Thomas Pearson Duanab, 51, of the New Patriotic Party, (NPP) who got -6,845 representing 27.94 per cent.

The People's National Convention candidate Dr Wumbeogo Michael Duanab, 43, a lecturer at the School of Allied Sciences at the University for Development Studies (UDS) and third time contestant for the seat came third with 6,836 votes representing 27.90 per cent.

The rest of the results; are Mr Joseph Toatoba of Progressive Peoples’ Party (PPP) 214; Independent People’s Party, Denis Atiah Tambil, 38; James Doubil of New Vision Party, 93; Yaro Bameezina Philip of Ghana Freedom Party, 58; and Isaac Kumgazore of United Progressive Party, 49.

The by-election became necessary following the resignation of Mr Robert Nachinab Domemeng Mosore, who has been enskinned as Tongorana.

Tear gas

Voting was generally peaceful in most polling stations in the Talensi district.

However, there were some pockets of violent incidents, which compelled the police to fire teargas to disperse agitated youths of the New Patriotic Party who had barricaded their party office at Tongo in the Talensi constituency of the Upper East Region, ostensibly to defend it from suspected thugs.

The party youth were reported to be angry with the security services for alleged indifference when a number of their officials and party members were attacked by the suspected thugs alleged to be affiliated to the NDC.

The NPP youth also mounted a roadblock just across the party office in the Tongo town. Occupants of a Nissan Patrol vehicle with registration number GN 1812 11 allegedly fired gunshots at occupants of a mauve-coloured Nissan pick-up with registration number GT 7220 10 suspected to be NPP followers.

The ensuing confrontation saw occupants of the Nissan Patrol abandoning their vehicle. They fled the scene, following which the enraged NPP youth deflated its tyres and shattered its windscreens with stones.

The vandalised vehicle has since been towed to the Tongo District Police Station while detectives have visited the scene of the clash. The police were, however, tight-lipped about the number of arrests they had made.

Some NPP political bigwigs, including Mr Gabby Otchere-Darko, and Mr Dan Botwe had to talk to the NPP youth to calm down. All that happened between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

At about 4:35 p.m. the Daily Graphic gathered that there was another confusion at one of the polling centres in the eastern part of the Talensi district. When the Daily Graphic visited the NDC party office, some of the youth had boarded a number of pick-up vehicles and were heading towards the trouble spot.

Counting of ballots at some polling stations including the Tongo Dispensary polling station begun at around 5:30 p.m. while as of that time some were still voting.

Isolated incidents

Between 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. while voting was ongoing, the Tongo Police Station buzzed with a lot of activities as information started trickling in about reports of some incidents recorded at some polling stations. A case in point was a group of irate youth who stormed the police station and complained that the police were partial in dealing with such cases.

One of the youth who pleaded for anonymity said he did not see the reason why the police arrested a suspect with a dummy ballot paper who was apparently educating some eligible voters and reportedly allowed some suspects who were allegedly carrying cutlasses and axe to go scot-free. Although there were reports that the police had seized the weapons including AK47 assault rifles, the police themselves remained tight lipped when contacted on all the incidents. They rather said they were waiting to conduct investigations into those incidents. Although the security personnel at the various checkpoints at the entrance of the Tongo town appeared vigilant some people alleged that they allowed some others to pass through the checkpoint without properly screening them.

Thugs

At Gorogo on the outskirts of the Tongo town, there were reports of a group wearing green shirts with an inscription "security" written on their backs allegedly going round polling stations terrorising voters. When the Daily Graphic visited the community some residents intimated that one member of the group was nearly lynched in the area. It was, however, not clear where they were coming from.

Politicians

At one of the polling stations located within the premises of the Tongo District Electoral Commission Office, some politicians and electoral officers were monitoring events there. The Upper East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission,Mr.James Arthur-Yeboah said everything was going on peacefully. The Daily Graphic also spotted the 2012 flag bearer of the People's National Convention (PNC) Mr Hassan Ayariga and the Founder of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) Madam Akua Donkor who confidently told the paper that in spite of a recent controversy between her and her candidate,the GFP was winning the elections.

Voting

Voting was generally peaceful. It started in earnest in Tongo, Pwalugu and other polling stations in the Talensi district where the electorate were expected to choose a parliamentary candidate among eight candidates.

At the Tongo Dispensary Centre polling station, for instance, at about 7:40 a.m. 25 people had cast their votes out of 539 voters. There was a queue formed at the centre. There were two policemen stationed at the centre with personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department also present.

At about 7:42 a.m, an old woman had to be turned away because the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) could not identify her finger print.

The Presiding Officer, Mr Atiah Raymond stated that there were two BVDs allocated to the polling station saying everything was under control.

Security

There was a heavy presence of a combined team of police and military especially at the entrance of the Tongo town.

There were two checkpoints at the entrance of Tongo.