The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has declared Edem Agbana as the winner of the Ketu North parliamentary primaries.
According to Fiifi Kwetey, the General Secretary of the NDC, the contest which was initially declared a tie belongs to Edem Agbana.
There was confusion after Saturday’s primaries between the two main contenders –Edem Agbana and John Adanu Zewu– following a tie.
Edem was initially declared the winner by a single vote, but upon two recounts, the EC discovered 3 ballot papers that were not stamped.
In an interview after the election, Eric Edem Agbana said that despite the opposition to his victory, he won the Saturday elections with 360 votes while his biggest contender had 359.
He explained that following the initial counting, a recount was done twice on the request of his opponents but the votes remained the same.
“After that my agent signed the pink sheet which recorded the 360 votes, only for a challenge to be brought up about the validity of the ballot papers.”
“So they decided to check whether or not all the ballots were properly stamped. And according to EC officials after that check, two of the ballot papers recorded in my favour did not have the stamp,” Mr Agbana told the host Blessed Sogah.
He noted that a further check of these ballot papers’ serial numbers proved that they were legitimate papers issued from the Electoral Commission’s booklet.
“It means that if these papers were without a stamp, it was as a result of either recklessness on the part of an EC official, or a deliberate attempt of an EC official to mar the process.”
“How do you punish a candidate or the voter for an abysmal job done by an EC official? There is a winner in Ketu North and the winner is Edem Agbana.”
On Saturday, the NDC delegates in Ketu North had to choose between eight candidates who to vote for to represent them in the 2024 general election.
After an initial count of the votes cast, Edem Agbana and his team began celebrating after beating his opponent with one vote.
