NDC sues EC, seeks fresh Nsawam Adoagyiri election
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Amenorpe Philbert Fummey, has sued the Electoral Commission (EC), seeking a fresh election in the constituency.
Consequently, the recollation of parliamentary results for the Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency in the Eastern Region which was being done by the EC at the Tesano Police Training School in Accra yesterday has been halted following a court injunction by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
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Plaintiff’s case
In a writ which also has the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate, Frank Annoh Dompreh, as a defendant, the plaintiff accused the EC of using invalid statements of results (pink sheets) to collate the results of the constituency.
The suit was filed at the Accra High Court yesterday by Mr Fummey’s lawyer, Godwin Kudzo Tameklo, who is also the Director of Legal of the NDC.
Apart from the suit, the plaintiff has also filed a motion for interlocutory injunction seeking an injunction of the collation of the results for the constituency pending the final determination of the substantive suit.
It is the case of Mr Fummey that some people who he claimed to be NPP members, allegedly attacked the collation centre and destroyed some of the pink sheets.
At the time of the alleged attack, the plaintiff averred that he and his team had collated 118 out of the 203 pink sheets and as a result of the attack, he had only 137 of the pink sheets, while the EC, he said, also indicated to him that it had 80 per cent of the pink sheets in its custody.
However, the plaintiff averred that despite the destruction of some of the pink sheets, the EC decided to continue with the collation.
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“The plaintiff avers that in a shocking twist of events, he has been summoned by the Electoral Commission to continue and finish up with the collation of the results for the constituency with the Electoral Commission, contrary to its earlier position, insisting that it had all the pink sheets available,” the plaintiff submitted.
Reliefs
Given the above claims, the plaintiff is urging the court to declare that the integrity of the election in Nsawam Adoagyiri had been undermined due to the “absence, incomplete and/or questionable nature of the pink sheets”.
He is also seeking a declaration that as a result of the incomplete or questionable nature of the pink sheets, the EC cannot declare a winner for the parliamentary election for the constituency.
The plaintiff further wants the court to organise a fresh election for the constituency.
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The Tesano recollation centre was set up following insecurity at some constituency collation centres that were put on hold by the EC after the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.
As a result, the recollation for the Suhum and Akwatia constituencies were completed at the centre and declared in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) last Thursday.
NDC’s position
However, the NDC Deputy Director of Elections and Information Technology (IT), Dr Tanko Rashid Computer, said his party would not accept the results declared for Suhum and Akwatia.
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In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Computer said the NDC was opposed to the EC's recollation process, describing it as "weird" and "illegal".
He said the party would not accept the EC's attempt to recollate votes in the nine outstanding constituencies because five of those constituencies’ parliamentary election results had already been declared by the Returning Officers of those constituencies.
"We are totally against any recollation whatsoever," Dr Computer emphasised.
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"When a returning officer declares results and you're not satisfied you go to court. But when a returning officer declares results you can't come back and ask for recollation, " he stated further.
Dr Computer expressed concern over the discovery of fake pink sheets among the 82 polling stations flagged by the party in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency.
"We became suspicious when we realised that the Electoral Commission had fake pink sheets. The numbers on the pink sheets were tampered with, and we could see that they were not genuine," he said.
“What they are doing is illegal, and we are preventing it," he said, adding that the party had also rejected the declaration of results in Suhum and Akwatia, citing incomplete processes."
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“We objected to the declaration because the process was not complete. We won't accept it, and we will continue to fight against this illegality," he said.
NPP’s reaction
The sitting NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Akuapem South, Osei Bonsu Amoah, campaign manager for NPP parliamentary elections, tasked to oversee the recollation in the outstanding constituencies, explained that the EC had decided to move the collation process to a different location due to the chaos that disrupted the process in the regional collation centres.
However, the process was further complicated by an application for an injunction, which brought the entire process to a halt.
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"The EC officer came to tell us that he had received an application for an injunction from the NDC, hence he wanted to postpone the process.
"We were wondering why he wanted to postpone it, especially since we had travelled so far to get to this point," he said.
Mr Amoah emphasised that the NPP would not accept any attempt to disrupt the electoral process.
"We will not accept this. The EC must ensure that the process is fair and transparent," he stressed.
"We were going on with the process for Nsawam Adoagyiri and it was left with just some small percentage then the EC officer came to tell us that they had discussed with the NDC side so he wanted to inform us that he wanted to postpone it today," he said.
"We came in this morning for the Nsawam-Adoagyiri process only for us to hear that an application for an injunction has been served on the EC and the sitting MP for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, who is also the candidate, that the process should halt,” Mr Amoah added.
He said the party was expecting three from Ashanti and one from Bono East.