Five parliamentary candidates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have officially petitioned and asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to collate and re-collate the results of their respective constituencies following the recent parliamentary primaries held nationwide.
The candidates allege that, electoral malpractices, procedural breaches, and irregularities in the collation processes that, according to them, affected the integrity of the outcomes.
The five candidates are Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah of Techiman South, Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh of Ablekuma North, Charles Forson of Tema Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah of Okaikwei Central and Mike Aaron Oquaye Jnr of Dome -Kwabenya.
In their respective petitions dated Friday, December 13, 2024 and addressed to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa, the five parliamentary candidates argue that they were the legitimate winners of the elections that were held in their constituencies.
On the part of Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah and Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh, they are demanding the collation of the parliamentary results, which they say had unduly delayed.
Concerning Charles Forson, Patrick Yaw Boamah and Mike Aaron Oquaye Jnr – they want the Electoral Commission to re-collate the results on the basis that the initial collations were unlawful and in flagrant violation of electoral laws.
“I am making a demand on you as the chair of the commission to direct the returning officer of the Techiman South Constituency to collate and declare the winner of the Techiman South parliamentary elections,”MrKorsah noted in his petition.
For Ablekuma North, Nana Akua Afriyieh, she noted in her petition that, “I have attached the scanned copies of all 281 pink sheets, which show that I won the election with a margin of 411 votes. The results are as follows: Nana Akua Owusu Afriyich (NPP) – 34,610 votes, and AwurabenaAubunn (NDC) – 34,199 votes.
“In view of the aforesaid, I am making a demand on your office to direct the Returning Officer for the Ablekuma North Constituency to collate and declare the Ablekuma North Constituency parliamentary election results within the provisions of the law”.
Concerning Tema Central, he said, “The votes from the two remaining polling stations when added will give me 18,870 votes as against the NDC 18,815 votes. In view of the aforesaid, I am officially demanding your good office to direct the Returning Officer for the Tema Central Constituency to properly collate and declare the Tema Central Constituency Parliamentary election results in accordance with law”.
Mr. Boamah also indicated in his petition that, “Based on the polling station results, pink sheets, and results as declared at the constituency collation center, I am the projected winner of the parliamentary election. The unlawful exclusion of the 31 polling stations at the regional collation center significantly impacted the outcome of the results”.
According to Mr. Oquaye Jr., the collation that resulted in the NDC’sElikplimAkurugu being declared winner was conducted in blatant disregard for the nation’s electoral laws because it was not conducted in his or his representatives’ presence.
He maintained that such an act violated Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (C.I. 127), Regulation 43 (1).
As a result, he expects the EC to hold what he calls a “proper collation” for the constituency.
In a related development, Deputy Chair of Corporate Services at the EC, Dr BossmanAsare has justified why there is need to re-collate some of the results from some constituencies because to him, due procedures were not followed, necessitating intervention by the Commission.
“When you look at C. I 127, regulation, 43, it specifies the procedure to follow. The 43 starts by saying that each candidate is supposed to have two agents for the collation when it comes to the parliamentary elections. From there, it lists the procedures to be followed. And what the Commission has said very clearly is that, in terms of our collation, all these processes were not followed” he said in an interview with JoyNews’ Newsfile.
He added, “”So literally, the collation we expect to take place in some of these places, they didn’t take place, and once what they did was inconsistent with C. I 127, regulation, 43 then the Commission had the responsibility to ensure that all the things that were done which were not proper were corrected. We don’t care about the outcome of the election. We don’t care who is winning here, or who is winning there. What we care about is to protect the integrity of the process, and that process has been clearly specified in law.”
