The governing National Democratic Congress has recaptured the Talensi seat it lost to the opposition New Patriotic Party in a hot-tempered by-election that was not without violence.
Mr. B.T. Baba, 67, a retired Deputy Director General of the Ghana Prisons Service and the former chairman of the Ghana Olympic Committee returns to the eye of the public and now to the Chamber of Parliament after polling 10,366 votes to beat his closest contenders- Mr Thomas Duanab of the opposition New Patriotic Party and Michael Namail Teng of the People’s National Convention.
Duanab polled 6,845 and was neck-to-neck with the PNC candidate who also polled 6,836 in an election that saw five other candidates from the smaller parties poll just a handful of votes.
The PNC candidate is demanding a recount of votes, alleging there were some anomalies in the votes in his stronghold.
BT Baba has less than two years to be in Parliament and will return to the battle field to contest the seat again in the 2016 elections in December.
He is completing the tenure of the former NPP MP Robert Monsore who has now been enskinned chief of the Tolon Traditional area.
It did not look like an election whose winner will serve barely two years in Parliament. The contestants fought hard and their supporters were ready to die in an election President John Mahama tagged as a precursor to what will happen in the 2016 elections.
Gun shots were fired, machetes were used with personnel from both the NDC and NPP sustaining varying degrees of injuries.
Both parties have been pointing accusing fingers at each other for the violence with the NDC’s Azorka Boys and the NPP’s Bolga Bull Dogs all mentioned in the fracas which left the police helpless in most cases, reports indicated.
It was the military men who came to the rescue of some of the victims.
Independent Election observers CODEO say the election was largely peaceful except for few violent incidents that happened outside the polling centres.
Paul Osei Kufuor of CODEO in an interview with Joy News applauded the EC officials for acting professionally.
He also stated that the biometric machines were largely effective.
After hours of counting and collation the EC finally announced Mr BT Baba as the MP elect for Talensi.