Hajia Lariba Zuweira Abudu, the current Member of Parliament for the Walewale constituency has formally withdrawn from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primary re-run.
Hajia Lariba presented a letter to General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua, announcing her decision to step down from the contest which ended undetermined on Monday September 9, 2024, as the electoral process was interrupted by some unscrupulous individuals.
The High Court in Tamale declared the results of the January 27, 2024, preliminary election invalid and ordered the NPP to rerun the elections.
Subsequently, the party in a statement announced timelines of the re-run, which was earlier scheduled on Sunday, September 8 but was later postponed to Monday due to a funeral rite of a local chief in the constituency.
The conduct of the re-run primary between the present MP, Lariba Zuweira Abudu and Dr. Kabiru Tia Mahama was supervised by the Electoral Commission surrounded by heavy security.
Even so, the process was disrupted during the sorting process after voting had ended.
Gabriel Manu, the North East Regional Director in a media interview made noted that the winner of the election was not determined.
The EC stated that some of the ballot papers were damaged in a way that it could not determine the candidate who had won the polls.
In this regard, the Walewale MP Lariba decided to withdraw to keep the peace and unity in the Walewale constituency.
By Nelly Takyiwa Boateng, Student, Kumasi Technical University (KsTU)
