December 8,2024.
By Mavis Lamise Amaaba
A fierce dispute over the collation of 2024 election results in Damango, Savannah Region, has escalated into violence, with the district office of the Electoral Commission being set on fire. The unrest stems from disagreements between agents of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over the collation process.
At the heart of the dispute is the parliamentary seat for the Damango constituency, currently held by Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor of the NPP. Jinapor had wrestled the seat from Adam Mutawakilu Garlus of the NDC in the 2020 parliamentary elections, and Garlus is now seeking to reclaim it.
The agents for Garlus and Jinapor are at odds over whether the Electoral Commission should first collate the parliamentary election results or those of the presidential election. This disagreement has boiled over into violence, with youths setting fire to the Electoral Commission’s district office in Damango.
