70 Polling Station Chairmen boycott NPP Primaries

New Edubiase (Ash), Jan. 18, GNA- The frayed New Edubiase NPP Parliamentary Primaries, which was postponed twice, last year, as a result of a dispute over the eligibility of one of the candidates, finally came off on Thursday, but not without problems.

Up to 70 polling station chairmen out of a total 89 who were expected to cast their votes to select a parliamentary candidate for the party in this year's elections, boycotted the event and later took to the streets in a demonstration to protest the decision of the party officials to restrain Mr Justice Asafo-Adjei, one of the contestants from taking part in the elections.

Regardless of that, the voting exercise supervised by the Ashanti Regional Electoral Commission came on amidst heavy police presence. Mr De-Graft Kyei-Baffour a teacher emerged the winner by polling 34 votes to beat his sole contender Mr Francis K. Dorpenyoh, the Adansi South District Chief Executive who had one vote.

The 35 people, who took part in the voting process, were the 19 polling station chairmen and 16 constituency executives.

Three persons initially filed their nominations to contest for the Parliamentary seat, but later Mr Asafo-Adjei was dropped over a dispute questioning his eligibility to stand the election.

The law suit filed by one Mr Adansi Gyimah and others at a Kumasi court seeking a perpetual injunction restraining Mr Asafo-Adjei from contesting, was later quashed after an intervention by some high-ranking party officials, who asked for an out of court settlement. However the protestors who were mainly Asafo-Adjei's supporters claimed that the said arbitration did not come on since Asafo-Adjei was still not allowed to contest.

The protestors who embarked on a peaceful street demonstration in the town demanded an explanation from party officials and accused them of giving Mr Asafo-Adjei a raw deal.

Meanwhile, a few violent scenes erupted during the voting exercise, which saw Mr Anthony Appiah Constituency Secretary sustaining a minor head injury, when an unidentified person hit him with a bottle when he attempted voting.

Mr Appiah is however doing well after receiving treatment at the hospital.

In an acceptance speech, Mr De-Graft Kyei-Baffour called for unity and promised to work hard to wrest the seat from the NDC in this year's elections.

Mr Sam Cudjoe, Ashanti Regional Party Secretary advised the supporters of the party in the area to burry all their differences and place the party first in all their activities to secure the seat for the party.