The opposition National Democratic Congress on Saturday, December 10, 2022, held a delegates congress to elect leaders for the party’s youth and women’s wing.
An incident of violence disrupted the electoral process until police personnel on the ground brought order to the scene.
According to a police statement, “while proceedings were ongoing at the Congress, two rival groups violently clashed, throwing stones, blocks, sticks, clubs, and chairs, among others, causing injury to three persons and destruction to property.”
While the police statement was not specific on the details of the clash and what caused the violence, GhanaWeb sources say the incident was a result of a misunderstanding over the electoral register for the election.
According to the GhanaWeb source, the perpetrators of the violence were made up of some individuals aligned with the two main contestants for the position of national youth organizer of the party, George Opare Addo, who was the incumbent, and Brogya Gyenfi.
Their issue had to do with a disagreement over the list of TEIN delegates, which is the tertiary student wing of the party.
The source noted that there was an attempt to include some fake TEIN executives in the electoral roll, which attracted anger from the camp of George Opare Addo, popularly known as Pablo.
The disagreement over the register led to a clash between the two factions, which saw the elections halted for several minutes.
Meanwhile, the source noted that the incident led to George Opare Addo winning the race by gaining some sympathy votes.
George Opare Addo won by 25 votes after polling 533, beating Yaw Bogya Genfi, who polled 508 votes.