The National 3rd Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Osman Masawudu, has called for the valid ballot papers from the Walewale parliamentary primary re-run to be counted.

According to him, he plans to formally present his request to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and has included that the ballot be counted in his report on the incident.

His proposal comes in the wake of confusion that disrupted the election and led the Electoral Commission (EC) to declare the election null and void.

Read also: Warning shots fired as ballot box was snatched in NPP Walewale primaries re-run

In an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Tuesday, September 10, Masawudu explained that the ballots are currently in police custody for safekeeping after the disruption. He argued that despite the chaos the majority of the ballot papers remain intact.

He noted that the ballots spoiled during the scuffle were fewer than 20, making them unlikely to affect the overall outcome.

"I was requesting the EC to count the number of votes sorted because if you look at the ballot papers, both candidates crossed 400, as the total number of votes was 826. If you look at the ballot papers that were spoilt, they were not up to 20.

“To me, as a Chairman of the committee I believe that if you want justice, to know the number of votes a candidate obtained, I still stand by counting the valid ballot papers sorted which is in the custody of the police,” he pointed out.

Read also: NPP Walewale primary nullified after ballot snatching incident

Mr Masawudu maintained that the ballot papers can justify the winner of the election.

“I am having the hope that one candidate even got more than 100 votes. So if one person got more than 100 votes and it is 20 papers that have spoilt - even if you add the 20 to the other person, they woudn’t win.

"We know the total number of voters in the register so we will compare and calculate the total number of people who voted and the total number of the votes cast and deduct the spoilt papers, we can clearly identify the winner of this election,” he added.

The confusion at the Walewale primary occurred when an individual snatched some ballot papers during sorting, leading to the destruction of several ballots.

The EC, overseeing the election, declared the process null and void and referred the matter back to the NPP for a decision on the next steps.

The primary was intended to select a nominee for the December parliamentary election.

The NPP now faces the task of setting a new date for the election before the deadline for filing nominations at the end of the week.