MP for Manhyia North retained
The much-awaited primary to elect the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the Manhyia North constituency finally came off last Saturday with the incumbent Member of Parliament, Mr Collins Owusu Amankwah, retaining the slot to represent the party at the next elections.
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He shrugged off competition from two other contenders to receive the nod from the delegates.
He polled 185 votes as against 171 by his closest contender, Akwasi Konadu, and the third candidate, Nana Osei Bamfo, who polled 129, while four ballots were rejected.
In all, 489 delegates out of the expected 495 cast their ballots.
Camping and curse
Even before voting started, there were rumours that the incumbent, who earlier camped some of the delegates, had paid them an amount of GH¢700 and asked them to swear by the dreaded Ashanti deity, Antoa, so that anyone who failed to vote after taking the money would be dealt with.
There were also rumours that one other candidate, who also camped some of the delegates, was unable to pay them any money but, instead, promised to do so after the congress. This angered some of the delegates.
Again, some polling station executive members who felt they were wrongly omitted from the list of delegates also stormed the congress ground threatening to cause mayhem.
However, per the arrangement of the congress, they could not get access to the centre and had to remain outside whining and grinding their teeth.
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Arrest
One guy who kept trying to stop delegates from casting their ballots, claiming they were not delegates, was arrested and taken away by the police. This was after several warnings from the police.
The police had to also fire a warning shot to prevent what they claimed was an intelligence that there was the possibility of the ballot box being snatched, and the warning shot was meant to prevent that act.