There was a by-election held in Ghana on the 31st of January, 2019 after the untimely death of the past Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency Emmanuel Kwabena Kyeremateng Agyarko on the 21st of November, 2019. The race was contested by 4 candidates but most people believed the siting government will win since the former MP belonged to the current government.
The elections started off peacefully at various polling stations at 7 am until masked men identifying themselves as National Security operatives thronged various polling stations. They began to harass anyone they see and some shots were fired. At least, 6 people have been confirmed to be injured whiles no arrest has been made yet. The section of the masked men besieged the premises of the main opposition candidate's house in Accra, their reason being that they have information that the opposition candidate was housing people to perpetuate violence later during the elections. In other words, they attacked first to prevent a future attack from the opposition party.
The main opposition party NDC has blamed the sitting government for promoting a vigilante group called invisible forces and giving them National Security apparels to come and intimidate the opposition so their supporters wouldn't be able to vote. The sitting party NPP has also blamed the NDC for the violence and said the NDC wants to create an impression that they were scared to go out to vote because they knew they would loose the elections and so they orchestrated this act. The NPP has however not condemned the act but have said the violence occurred at the opposition candidate's house and so it can't be linked to the elections.
It is said that in this day and age where other countries vote electronically with no cases of violence, political parties in most parts of Africa have armed groups to provide security during elections. If nobody believes in the elections, why do we keep voting? Nigeria would be holding national elections soon and we wait to see what happens. Most Africans are hoping that Africa's most populous nation will lead by conducting free and fair elections.
Not Shot By Me
