YENDI BOILS; …After NPP PC race

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Farouk Aliu Mahama Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah,

Yendi is boiling. Amid tensions from the NPP parliamentary primary, with the two lead rival aspirants and scions of godfathers of the NPP in the area both claiming victory in Saturday’s poll.

Supporters of both candidates, incumbent MP, Farouk Aliu Mahama, and challenger and MASLOC CEO, Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, have taken to the streets in support of the respective victories of both candidates.

While constituency executives accused of supporting the incumbent MP before the poll, declared Farouk Aliu Mahama winner of the election without proper counting and collation of results by the EC, supporters of Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, his main challenger, also declared her winner of the disrupted election Sunday and took to the streets in celebration.

Sources say both claimants plan to unleash supporters in victory parties today.
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Media reports suggest that the parliamentary primary itself was disrupted Saturday noon when some delegates tore and destroyed ballots during the process of counting and collating results. The disruption occured after some delegate alleged that the EC supervisor and the Constituency executives surreptitiously destroyed some ballots of the rival aspirant during counting and were influencing the process in favour of the MP.

The Police and Yendi constitutuency executives of the NPP have, however, blamed the event on an unidentified person. Both claimed the suspects in the act were unknown, though the Constituency executives said the alleged suspects beat the supervising EC officer to pulp and nearly turned him blind in an eye.

After the disrupted process Saturday noon captured live on various media, constitutuency executives around 7pm declared the incumbent as winner, claiming their tally was from counted and uncounted but known ballots from the primary. They also claimed that they did so because of the disrupted behaviour of the unknown individual who disrupted the collation and counting of the ballots and that he had not been identified or arrested.

The declaration sent supporters of Farouk Aliu Mahama celebrating throughout Saturday night.

Sunday morning, another victory ceremony and celebration was held by supporters of the challenger and MASLOC CEO after which her supporters took to the streets of Yendi in drove as a counter to the overnight celebration by supporters of the incumbent MP.

Interestingly, both candidates are children of former leading politicians of the NPP from the Yendi Constituency.

Farouk Aliu Mahama, the sitting MP, is the son of the late Aliu Mahama, who served as Vice President under the 4th Republic Kufuor administration. Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, CEO of MASLOC, is on the other hand the daughter of Alhaji Shanni Mahama, a former MP for Yendi Constituency and a Deputy Minister for Agriculture under the 2nd Republic administration of Kofi Abrefa Busia.