NPP cries foul - Wants EC to audit collated votes
Holding and brandishing white, pink and blue sheets as some of the evidence gathered, he described the discrepancies as systematically planned to steal the votes and cited an example from the Dome Kwabenya Constituency where he said 15,000 votes was allegedly, illegally added to candidate John Mahama’s votes.
Mr Obestebi-Lamptey told the media that in the Savelugu Constituency, candidate John Mahama of the NDC polled 21,165 votes according to the EC at the collation centre, however 31, 165 votes had allegedly been falsely declared for him.
Surrounded by party bigwigs and a large number of both local and international media, the NPP Chairman alleged that some of the criminal acts was done after the collated results were declared at the constituency. “We have noticed a pattern of fraud, where subtracted numbers of votes are either added to the NDC or subtracted from the NPP presidential candidate,”
He expressed surprise that some media houses have also been announcing figures from the constituency collated centres that had been tampered with when compared with figures from tallying sheets which are called ‘blue sheets’ and this was giving a highly misleading picture to the people of Ghana.
“For example, Peace FM and Joy FM have both announced 10,000 more votes for John Mahama, the NDC Presidential Candidates, than what was declared for him at the Ledzokuku collation centre, giving him 63,210 (60.53 per cent), instead of 53,210”, he alleged and stressed that such systematic manipulation of the figures across the country casts serious doubt on the credibility of the results.
Regarding the ‘No Verification, No Vote’ rule set by the commission, the NPP Chairman alleged that this was blatantly defied in a lot of places in the Upper West, Upper East and Volta Regions, alleging futher that at specific places in Bawku Central, Nadowli and Salaga South, high turnouts were registered in areas where voting occurred without the use of the verification machine.
According to Mr Obestebi-Lamptey in NorthTongu where there was no verification machine, the effect on the non-verification was seen when John Mahama got 34,162 and alleged that these violation of the electoral rule were spearheaded by EC officials with the connivance with some NDC officials.
He called on NPP supporters across the country to ignore what he described as “tainted provisional results” from sections of the media, especially those who have gone ahead to use the wrong figures to call the elections for the NDC candidate.
Giving more evidence to support his alleged claim that the results had been tampered with, he said with the connivance of EC staff in an electoral fraud in the Yapei/Kusawgu constituency, the Presiding officer at the Kakalito polling station recorded zero (0) for the NPP presidential candidate, however upon a recount of the ballots; Nana Akufo-Addo got forty-nine (49) votes.
The NPP Chairman again said for Berekum West, Joy FM gave the NDC presidential candidate 7,750 and the NPP presidential candidate, 10,189, but the EC’s own results on its website, stated 9,091 for the NDC and 6,236 for the NPP.
Also in Akwatia, Joy gives the NDC candidate 19,118 and the NPP candidate 20,678. The EC, on the other hand, gives the NDC candidate 18,963 and the NPP candidate 20,506 votes. So, we call on the people of Ghana to remain calm and wait for a proper audit of the results before declaration.
He concluded that Nana Akufo-Addo had earlier on raised these concerns about the reliability of the election results with the ECOWAS observer mission headed by Gen Obasanjo when they paid a visit to him Sunday morning.
Story by Donald Ato Dapatem
