The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced that the results of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Walewale parliamentary primary rerun has been declared null and void.
This follows the disruption of the ballot sorting which led to the destruction of some ballot papers.
The EC has therefore referred the decision to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to take a decision on the way forward since it was an internal party event to select a nominee to contest the December parliamentary election on the ticket of the party.
The party will now have to take a decision to fix a new date for the election to be held immediately before the filing of nominations for the December 2024 parliamentary election in the Walewale constituency closes by the end of the week.
Gabriel Manu, the North East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission said the process started in the morning and everything went on well.
He said voting was finished successfully and when they started sorting the ballot papers, at a time just about 10 ballot papers had been sorted, "a man from no where came in and just took some ballot papers, destroyed some of them, but the police arrested him, put him in handcuffs."
"All the ballot papers right now are intact. They brought them to the police station, so we are meeting the regional minister and the security apparatus and seek the way forward, whether we are going to do the counting today or tomorrow after taking sober reflection," Mr Manu said around 6pm when he spoke to the media.
Mr Manu said he heard a gunshot when the individual snatched the ballot papers when the sorting was ongoing.
However, after examining the ballot papers later at the police station in the night and taking into consideration the ballot papers that were destroyed, the Electoral Commission declared the voting as null and void.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service has successfully restored order in Walewale after a disruption occurred during the vote-counting process in the re-run of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Primary for the Walewale Constituency.
The incident led to the arrest of Kamara Bawah, who was apprehended for causing damage to several ballot papers. The suspect is currently in police custody, assisting with the ongoing investigation.