A total of 34,858 ballots were rejected in the Presidential race of the 2020 General Election in the Ashanti Region, the Electoral Commission (EC), has confirmed.

The figure represents about 1.39 per cent of the 2,502,149 total votes cast in all the 47 constituencies.

Mr Benjamin Bano-Bio, the Regional EC Director, addressing the media in Kumasi, said the total valid votes stood at 2,467,291 in the Presidential election in the Region, which was won by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The NPP had 1,795,824 votes, representing 71.77 per cent of the total valid ballots cast while the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), garnered 653,149 votes, representing 26.1 per cent.

The two largest Ghanaian political parties have over the years counted on votes in the Region, a traditional stronghold of the NPP, to decide their fate in the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

In 2016, the then opposition party, the NPP, garnered over 1.6 million votes, representing 75.04 of the total valid ballots cast, while the incumbent NDC also had over 513, 000 of the votes, representing 24 per cent.

This year’s Presidential certified results, signed by all the contesting party agents at the EC’s Regional Office in Kumasi, saw the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) getting 12, 564 of the votes.

The rest are Convention People’s Party (CPP), 1, 356, Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), 593, Ghana Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), 304, All People’s Congress (APC), 482, and Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), 712.

Others include People’s National Convention (PNC), 444, Progressive People’s Party (PPP), 435, National Democratic Party (NDP), 476, and Independent Candidate, 952.

Mr Bano-Bio lauded the various political parties and security agencies for the able manner they conducted themselves in the polls.

He hoped this year’s elections would further deepen democracy in the country.