Barry wins Ashaiman NPP primaries

Alhaji Labaran Yakubu Barry, a mechanical engineer was on Saturday elected the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ashaiman, but his closest opponent Mr Abotibala Thomas Adongo says it was a stolen verdict.

Mr Adongo, who is a former Assembly Member of the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly, said he is heading to the courts for a peaceful resolution of the matter.

According to him, the delegates register which was used to conduct the elections as per the party’s rules governing the elections was different from the one used to conduct the party's presidential primaries.

Mr Adongo observed that prior to the election, he made a complaint about the register to the NPP Executives in the constituency based on which a meeting was held at the instance of the Municipal Police Command, the contestants and the municipal party executives.

He cited instance in the register in which the name of a late delegate was replaced with a different person.

Mr Adongo claimed that Alhaji Barry is not a true card baring member of the NPP and he was smuggled into the race at the instance of two constituency executives.

He observed that in the last NPP parliamentary primaries, because the elections were credible, he did concede defeat to the winner at that time.

He warned that if the matter is not resolved amicably by the NPP National Executive Committee, he would resign from the party.

Mr Adongo also accused Alhaji Barry of giving delegates GH? 10.00 each to influence the outcome of the elections.

According to the result as declared by an official of the Electoral Commission, Alhaji Barry won with 546 votes, whilst Mr Adongo placed second with 111 votes and Sheikh Muaaz Muhammed, an Islamic Scholar came third with 22 votes.

Supporters of Alhaji Barry took to the principal streets of Ashaiman to celebrate his victory.