The defeated contestant in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ablekuma West Constituency parliamentary primary, Robert Kwesi Nicol, has pledged his support for the incumbent, Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful who emerged winner in the primary on Saturday.
Madam Ursula Owusu beat Mr. Kwesi Nicol, to emerge victorious polling 554 votes as against her challenger’s 317 votes.
The third contender, one Theophilus Tetteh, pulled out of the race at the last hour because according to him, he still had issues with the voter’s register. He has since vowed to contest the seat as an independent candidate.
The Ablekuma West NPP primary was delayed for nearly nine months following disagreements over the constituency’s voters’ register. On the day of voting there were also misunderstandings over the use of two different albums.
13 NPP executives from the constituency resigned following the disagreements and accused the NEC of disrespecting the constituency’s executives and running the elections to favour the incumbent MP, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.
According to them, 400 delegates also boycotted the elections.
But the defeated Robert Kwesi Nicol, who campaigned on unification called for calm and urged all those disgruntled to come together and support the campaign to ensure victory for both the parliamentary and the presidential candidate.
Mr. Nicol, unusually accepted the results and conceded defeat even before counting was over.
Addressing the media, he said, “The results have shown that Honourable Ursula has been declared the winner and I am the loser so I am going to support her 100 percent.”
He urged party members to put the dispute over the albums behind them and work towards securing total victory in the November polls.
“Whether one album or two albums we are all NPP members so I think it is important that we should merge and look at the way forward to help the party win power in 2016.”
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana