NDC V/R Chairman calls for unity to retain Ketu North seat 

The Volta Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mawutor Agbavitor has urged the rank and file of the party in the Ketu North Constituency to rally behind the party’s parliamentary candidate for the area, Edem Agbana to retain the seat.

He said the only way the NDC could win all 18 constituencies in the region was for all party members to bury their difference and forge ahead in unity.

He ,therefore, tasked all aspirants to dissolve all campaign teams and work closely with the constituency leadership for a resounding victory,

Reconciliation meeting

Mr Agbavitor made the call at a reconciliation meeting organised by the party in the Ketu North Constituency to bring all the aspirants and their supporters together to forge ahead in unity following the controversy that rocked the May 13 parliamentary primary in the constituency.

  "We have embarked on this reconciliation exercise in a bid to iron out all differences in the rank and file of the party in Ketu North, especially between our parliamentary candidate hopefuls and their supporters who in the aftermath of the primary on May 13, have raised some concerns - we have done this because the primaries are over and the party needs everyone to unite and come on board towards victory for the NDC in the upcoming 2024 general election," Mr Agbavitor explained.

He,therefore, called on all members of the party in the constituency, especially Mr Agbana and John Adanu, the two leading contenders in the primary to work in unison for the sake of the party in the constituency.

Meeting

The Member of Parliament for Ketu North, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, who was part of the reconciliation meeting, said he was happy the aggrieved parties had come together "to smoke the peace pipe" and agreed to put the past behind them and to collaborate towards a resounding victory for the NDC in the constituency and the rest of the Volta Region in 2024.

Messrs Agbana and Adanu, the two contenders in the primary, both pledged their commitment to work hand in hand and to unite all their supporters in the constituency towards victory for the NDC in the 2024 general election.

The Electoral Commission (EC), at the end of the polls in the Ketu North Constituency on May 13, 2023, initially declared Edem Agbana the winner by a single vote in the contest as he secured 360 votes as against 359 by John Adanu.

But upon two recounts of the ballots requested by an agent of Mr Adanu, the EC discovered three ballot papers that were not stamped with two of the three unstamped ballots cast in favour of Mr Agbana, while one unstamped ballot was cast in favour of Mr Adanu.

The removal of the unstamped ballots from the votes of the two leading candidates left the two with 358 valid votes each, leading to confusion at the polling grounds and hot verbal exchanges between supporters of the two candidates.

However, following a crunch meeting between the party's Functional Executive Committee (FEC) and the two leading candidates, the party on May 16, 2023, announced Mr Agbana as the duly elected NDC parliamentary candidate for Ketu North.

The FEC announced after the declaration that it took that decision because the unstamped ballot papers, which were rejected by the EC, bore the same serial numbers as captured in the EC's own records.

This, however, did not go down well with some of the party faithful in the constituency who accused the party leadership of not following due process in their decision.