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The Member of Parliament for Chiana-Paga, Mr. Abuga Pele has challenged the results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) in Saturday's National Democratic Congress (NDC) primaries held in the constituency.

He alleges that the results which gave his closest contender, Lawyer Rudolf Amenga-Etego victory in the primaries was "inaccurate and manipulated to make him lose the primaries".
 
Lawyer Amenga-Etego polled 4,337 votes to beat the incumbent MP who got 4,177 votes. The third candidate Mr. Jonathan Nyaaba had 825 votes. Total votes cast were 9,749 votes out of which 410 were rejected ballots.

Speaking to the media on the outcome of the elections at Paga on Sunday, Mr. Pele was convinced that he had won the elections although there were some "unseen hands" within the constituency and at the national level that worked against him to get him out of the political scene in the constituency.

He further alleged that at the collation centre at Paga, he gathered that he was leading by six votes with one ballot box outstanding and which was brought in at the eleventh hour unaccompanied by security personnel and that was what overturned the whole results in favour of Mr. Amenga-Etego.

He also alleged that at Kurugu for instance, where over 800 people voted, it was discovered that the number of people who voted was almost equal to the voter population in the national elections.

According to him, the delays in holding the primaries and the manner in which they kept rescheduling it was enough evidence to show that the whole system was not working properly which in a way worked against him.

 
INDEPENDENT

Mr. Pele stated that he would always listen to members of his constituency since they made him who he is today.

According to him, already there were a number of people who were asking him to go independent in future elections stressing that "if that is the general feeling of my people I would rather disobey anybody rather than to disobey my people who have stood by me all these years judging from my support base".

                                          
NYEP SAGA

Mr. Pele explained that the court case on the alleged financial scandal involving him in the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) was a planned thing to get him out since from the look of things it seemed he had "stepped on some toes and as a result I have become a threat to some people's ambitions in the party".

He however indicated that the party must unite to avoid losing the elections to the New Patriotic Party because a similar thing happened in the past and the NPP won the seat but he (Mr. Pele) came back and won it back for the NDC during the 2012 general elections.

Touching on his contributions to the fortunes of the NDC, Mr. Pele observed that his position as the National Coordinator of the NYEP helped to give many youths jobs which ultimately contributed the victory of President John Mahama in the 2012 general elections.

Abuga Pele has been in Parliament for 16 years, having won the parliamentary elections in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012. He lost in 2008 to Leo Alowe Kabah of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) after Lawyer Rudolf Amenga-Etego, who contested Mr. Pele at the primaries in 2007 was dissatisfied with the results, and stood as an independent candidate.