Despite the declaration Ghana’s December 7, polls were generally fair and peaceful by the ECOWAS and other foreign observers, some casualties were recorded during and after the elections on Monday.
Local media reports said that two persons were confirmed dead at the Techiman Holy Family Hospital, while an unspecified number of people were also said to have sustained gunshot wounds following a shooting incident at the Techiman South Constituency in the Bono East Region.
The reports added that the deceased, whose names were yet to be revealed, were hit by stray bullets when the police and military officers deployed to ensure law and order fired several warning shots to control the crowd following the announcement of the parliamentary election results.
According to the reports, misunderstanding ensued over the results when it was declared that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah had won against Mr. Beyere of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). Both candidates had earlier declared themselves winners.
Following the firing of shots, the two persons, who got seriously injured were rushed in an ambulance to the Techiman Holy Family Hospital, but were pronounced dead on arrival.
Two journalists were also victims of shooting incidents and attacks at the Ablekuma Central collation centre by political party agents.
Reacting to the incident, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) condemned a shooting incident and attacks on the journalists.
The GJA President, Mr. Affail Monney, described the incident as a stain on Ghana’s democracy and charged security officers and other stakeholders to bring the perpetrators to book.
Monney told a news conference on Tuesday in Accra that the association received the report of a reporter from NewsWatch.com, who sustained gunshot wound in the leg at 0200 hours on Tuesday by a political activist at the said collation centre.
According to him, another journalist, Doreen Ampofo of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Radio, who was at the same collation centre suffered various degrees of injury as she tried to escape gunfire and stones hurled at her by an assailant who mistook her to be an Electoral Commission Official.
He described the developments as worrying and called on the Ghana Police Service to, as a matter of urgency, arrest and prosecute those involved in the shooting incident and the attacks to serve as a deterrent to other hooligans who may want to perpetuate such acts.
There were also some unconfirmed cases of attacks at the Savelugu Police Station with by party supporters, who demanded the release of a ballot box surrounded by controversy after Monday’s polls.
According to the reports, the attackers complained that the ballot box in police custody was unlawfully and unnecessarily delayed the certification and declaration of election results in the constituency.
Meanwhile, soldiers and policemen have been deployed at the Conference Centre, where the results of the presidential and parliamentary elections is expected to be announced by the Electoral Commission to control the surging crowd of party supports who have gathered outside the premises, waiting for the declaration of the result of the election, which local media projection is in favour of incumbent President Akufo Addo of the NPP..
GIK/APA