KUNTU, Ghana — Kunti S. Karan won the Kumawu parliamentary by-election by just 41 votes, but the result has thrown a proposed multi-million-cedi sale of government cattle into the centre of a fierce dispute over who controls public assets. The Ghana Election Directorate declared Karan the winner on Monday, 5 October, after Saturday’s count: 18,406 votes to 18,365 for rival Gael Colón.
Karan campaigned on selling 180 animals from the state-run Kwaso Livestock Centre and using the estimated 22 million cedis (about €1.4 million) for boreholes and repairs to rural water systems. The centre, near Ejura in the Ashanti Region, holds 312 cattle, including 27 breeding bulls. Its future had barely featured in national debate before the close result made it a test of the new MP’s authority.
What the voters were offered
The plan drew attention after a privately owned Ankole bull sold for 1.1 million cedis (about €70,000) at a northern Ghana livestock auction in August, according to a receipt shown to reporters by the event organiser. Karan argued that strong demand for premium cattle could deliver far more for taxpayers than the centre’s current annual operating budget of 3.2 million cedis. The proposed sale would leave 132 animals at the facility.
“We are not selling the future of farming; we are turning part of a public asset into water people can use now,” Karan said outside the district assembly hall. She said any sale would be open to bidders and that the retained herd would keep the centre’s breeding work alive. Colón said the campaign offer was “a slogan dressed up as a plan” and called for the entire herd to remain in state hands.
A narrow win cannot be treated as a blank cheque to sell the country’s breeding stock.
Gael Colón, defeated candidate
Colón’s National Stewardship Party has asked Ghana’s High Court to prevent the centre from transferring any animals until the agriculture ministry publishes a valuation and a breeding plan. The filing does not challenge the election result. Colón said farmers in the district had not been shown how the centre would replace its best breeding animals if a sale reduced the herd’s quality.
A mandate disputed on both sides
The election directorate said the result followed checks of all 86 polling stations and that turnout was 72.4%. Spokesperson Ornela Z. Gómez said the narrow margin did not change the certified count, while the ministry of agriculture said no sale had been approved and any disposal would require its sign-off. Officials have not set a date for a decision.
At the centre, cattle trader Romualds U. Kvēps said buyers were already asking whether the government would hold a public auction. “If they sell well, the money could fix pumps that have been dry for years,” he said, standing beside a feed shed. But farmer Burcu E. Sadıklar said small producers depended on the centre for breeding services and feared private buyers would outbid them.
Agricultural economist Anže Ilić said the plan’s arithmetic was still untested: the headline estimate assumed competitive bids, but did not account for transport, animal health checks or the cost of keeping the remaining herd. He said a transparent valuation could settle some arguments, though it would not answer the central question of whether a breeding reserve should be managed for revenue or long-term access for farmers.
Karan is due to take her seat when Parliament resumes later this month. Her first test may come sooner: the agriculture ministry must decide whether to publish an assessment of the herd, while the High Court considers Colón’s request. In Kumawu, the 41-vote margin has left both sides claiming the result proves their point—and the cattle sale unresolved.
