Six people were shot on Thursday during a by-election in Ghana, the Police have confirmed.
Gunshots and violence characterized the by-election held in the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency of Ghana’s capital, Accra.
Voters were electing a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the area.
The by-election was necessitated by the demise of the incumbent Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko last year.
He represented the area on the ticket of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Ghana’s laws requires that a fresh election is held once a sitting MP dies, resigns or is unable to carry out the required function.
News release – Shooting incident at Ayawaso West Wougon Constituency pic.twitter.com/sxnOxxPzU8
— Ghana Police Service (@GhPoliceService) January 31, 2019
The two main contenders for the seat were Lydia Seyram Alhassan, the spouse of the late MP on the ticket of the NPP and Delali Kwasi Brempong on the ticket of opposition NDC.
Finger pointing
The opposition NDC withdrew from the by-election over the shooting incident. It accused the NPP of orchestrating the melee to intimidate its supporters.
The party also withdrew its polling agents and observers from the area after consulting with its parliamentary candidate.
“In the circumstances, I have conferred with the parliamentary candidate and the leadership of the NDC. We have no option than to withdraw from the ongoing exercise,” the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, told Journalists in Accra on Thursday.
The NPP however, rejected the accusations saying the NDC was rather behind the chaos and shootings.
The NPP’s General Secretary, John Boadu, said the NDC was trying to fright people from voting.
“This is the impression our opponents want to create in order to scare people from going to vote.
“Other than that what is the problem? Our sisters and brothers on the other side always will want to create confusion. When they are in government, it is worse, and when they are in opposition, they are more dangerous,” he said was quoted as saying by local news website Citinewsroom.com.
“It appears to be a premeditated attempt to create an impression of violence and thereby discredit the ongoing election and prepare minds probably for what purposes we can’t tell…[maybe] to negatively perceive what is going on and probably position for the future, as well as damage the integrity of the Electoral Commission and the government.
“There has been a clearly orchestrated widespread attempt to blow out what has happened on multimedia and international media and this we condemn in its totality,” the NPP’s Director of Communications Yaw Buaben Asamoah added at a press conference Thursday.
Ghana will hold general elections next year. The country’s Commission for Civic Education warned the violence witnessed during the by-election is a dangerous sign ahead of the 2020 general elections.
“It will be extremely difficult for us as a nation to quench a fire of a national violent unrest once it gets started” warned the NCCE in a statement.
Source: Africafeeds.com
