NPP Primaries: Fisticuffs At Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro Over Removal Of Poster

Graphic Online's Chris Nunoo reports that two agents who are to monitor the elections at the Joy Academy School polling station at the Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro Constituency in Greater Accra engaged in fisticuffs over the removal of a banner and posters of one of the five aspiring candidates from the precinct of the polling station.

The misunderstanding which was further marred by the insistence of Mr Hopeson Adorye that removal of the banner and posters was an electoral offence delayed the commencement of the elections for about 15 minutes.

The Presiding Officer, Mr Abraham Essiem, together with a member of the NPP constituency elections committee and police officers on duty engaged the agents and other members of the party to remove the banner and posters which according to the electoral officer must be about 100 meters away from the polling station.

Mr Adorye who was in the company of Mr Sylvester Tetteh, one of the aspiring parliamentary candidates disagreed with the directive insisting that the removal of the banner and posters was an electoral offence.

The back and forth continued until security personnel and the electoral officers managed to calm tempers for the posters and banner to be removed for the process to proceed at about 7:15 am

As of 8:05 am, 21 out of a total of 75 delegates had cast their ballot without any further incident.

Mr Essiem said out of the 75 two were votes by proxy.

At the Mary Star of the Sea International School polling station at Ngleshi Amanfro, the Presiding Officer, Mr Samuel Mingle said 31 delegates out of the expected 171 had cast their ballot as at 8:30am.

Graphic Online observed that the process was smooth with all the stakeholders strictly observing the social distancing and the hygiene protocols.

There was an instance when a delegate was turned away by one of the electoral officers at Joy Academy polling station for not wearing a nose mask.

The police were also at hand to provide security and to safeguard the process.

The Bortianor-Ngleshi Amanfro Constituency NPP Parliamentary elections is taking place in all six electoral areas in the constituency.

They are, Galilea, Akwaasa, Kokrobite, Gedan Tuba, Bortianor and Ngleshi Amanfro electoral areas.

Five candidates including the incumbent Alhaji Habib Saad are contesting the elections.

Alhaji Saad is being challenged by Mr Sylvester Tetteh, who is the head of the National Youth Authority (NYA) and a former NPP parliamentary candidate for Prampram, Mr George Osei Wadee, Mr Frederick Abban who is said to be with the Yourh Employment Agency and Gifty Mensah, a teacher and former polling station executive of the party.