NDC injuncts EC’s parliamentary results recollation

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated that recollation being undertaken by the EC at the Police Training School throughout the week amounts to an illegality as there is no legal provision that makes room for recollation and redeclaration. 

Subsequently, the NDC has placed an injunction on the Electoral Commission (EC) to restrain it from recollating parliamentary election results.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra yesterday, the National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, indicated that the party had served an injunction on the EC which was received by one Daniel Nyamekye, with the Deputy Electoral Commissioner, Dr Bossman Asare, acknowledging receipt of the application. 

Mr Nketiah added that the Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Commissioner of Police (COP) Faustina Agyeiwaa Kodua Andoh-Kwofie, had been evading the injunction service and urging the EC to continue the illegal recollation exercise.

Until the injunction, the EC was recollating results of the Nsawm-Adoagyiri Constituency.

The previous day, the same centre had recollated and redeclared the seats of Akwatia, Suhum and Fanteakwa North in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) paliamentary candidates (PCs). 

Illegal

The National Chairman of the NDC stated that the recollation and redeclaration of parliamentary results by persons other than the Parliamentary Returning Officers (ROs) mandated under the electoral laws were illegal and would not be regarded by the NDC.

“We in the NDC believe that what is happening at the Police Training School amounts to illegality. It is not founded on any laws of our elections, neither is it based on any consensus that has been reached between the parties and the EC,” he said.

He affirmed that the recollation and redeclaration of Fanteakwa North, Akwatia and Suhum were alien to the electoral process; hence the action of the NDC to seek legal redress.

“We heard yesterday that the Fanteakwa North Constituency, whose results had been collated and declared at Begro, had now been recollated at the Police Training Depot and declared by somebody other than the returning officer. In fact, it doesn't amount to redeclaration because the person who was forced to declare it is not a designated person who has power or authority to declare any results of Fanteakwa at all,” he affirmed.

Consequences

Mr Nketiah cautioned that EC officials and the police involved in the recollation exercise would face the consequences when the NDC assumed the reins of the country from January 7 next year. 

“We want to inform the nation and give notice to any officials of the commission and the police who are involved in the perpetration of that illegality to note that there could be consequences of their actions in future,” he said. 

“We know the process of our election is quite clear; after voting, votes are counted and the results are entered on what we call the result declaration forms or the pink sheets. The presiding officer at the polling station proceeds to announce the outcomes at the polling stations after which all party agents sign and then are given copies of their results,” the NDC National Chairman who has been in the witness box twice in an election petition, stated. 

“The reason is that everybody will be having the same figures simultaneously. That is why we always say that elections are won or lost at polling stations,” he stated.

Mr Nketiah added that EC officials who declared different sets of results at different times may find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

“Those returning officers who are claiming that they have declared one set of results in their constituency and now they are claiming before their bosses that they declared those results under duress so they are now going to declare another set of results must know they may be on the wrong side of the law in the future,” the NDC chairman added.

Interference, legal redress

Mr Nketiah expressed concern over some traditional authorities trying to interfere in the electoral processes in certain parts of the country and putting pressure on EC officials not to proceed with their work according to the law. 

He advised the chiefs to abstain from partisan politics as indicated in the Constitution; stating that, “if they choose to descend into the arena of controversy, then they know the consequences will be obvious”.

The NDC national chairman also advised the leader of the NPP in Parliament, Alex Afenyo-Markin, to seek redress over any process it deemed as illegal in court.