Widow Of Late William Ocloo, Linda Ocloo Wins NDC’s Shai Osudoku Primary

The widow of the late Desmond William 0cloo, Mrs. Linda Akwele Ocloo on Saturday, beat Dr. Michael Kpessa Whyte to win the National Democratic Congress’ parliamentary primary, in the Shai Osudoku Constituency of the Greater Accra Region.

Mrs. Linda Akwele Ocloo, a teacher and a political greenness, lost the husband in a tragic car crash in March after he won the primary.

Having no political experience, there were suggestions that Mrs. Ocloo could not make any impact and would be no match for Dr. Kpessa Whyte, Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat who contested her late husband in the first primary of four contestants and came second.

But at the end of voting, Linda Akwele Ocloo polled 5,156 votes, with Dr. Kpessa Whyte managing 3,372 votes. Linda Ocloo strangely polled more votes than her late husband, Desmond Ocloo in the previous primary.

The late Desmond William Ocloo won the primary in November 2015, by triumphing over David Tetteh-Assumeng, who has been in Parliament since 2004.

Mr. Ocloo in the previous election, polled 4,350 votes, while David Tetteh-Assumeng had 1280. Dr. Kpessah Whyte polled 3,189 votes, while Ebenezer Adzakli had 393. This means Dr. Whyte in the second primary, only added 183 votes to his previous figure. I won’t contest Shai Osu-Doku NDC primary – Tetteh Assumeng.

But the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) incumbent Member of Parliament MP for Shai Osu Doku, David Tetteh Assumeng, opted out of Saturday’s primary in solidarity with the deceased, Desmond William Ocloo, leaving the contest between Mr. Whyte and Linda Ocloo.

Mrs. Ocloo in her victory speech promised to ensure unity and bring development to the constituency should she emerge the winner of the polls 2016 national elections.

According to her, the constituency lacks a lot and thus she will work hard to bring relief to the people.

She further promised to work hard to increase the votes of the NDC at both the presidential and parliamentary levels.

The exercise in general was very peaceful across board until some of the voters and supporters of Mrs Linda Ocloo at a point threw caution to the wind and hooted at Dr Kpessa White and his team.

This happened at the Post office polling station which is said to be the polling station with the highest number of voters and also one of the strong holds of Mrs Ocloo.

Dr Kpessa White and his team were on their normal polling station to polling station rounds when the incident occurred.

The angry crowd gathered at the time were accusing Dr Kpessa White for bringing land guards with the aid of Mr Sam George into town to intimate them for which they had to hoot at him and his team.

The problem which disrupted the voting process for a while was quickly addressed by the police and voting continued.

At about 3:15 pm, the rains also started but voters defied it and queued in it to cast their ballot.

The police also defied it and stood in to protect the ballot box as well as ensure the process ended successfully.