NPP to challenge 7 parliamentary seats in court

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it has assembled a team of lawyers to challenge the results of seven parliamentary constituencies in the just ended 2020 general elections.

The seats are Assin North, Cape Coast North, Pusiga, Bawku Central, Savelugu, Asuogyaman and Nkwanta North.

Go to court

Speaking at a press conference in Accra at the party’s campaign office on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, the party’s Campaign Manager, Mr Peter Mac Manu said even though the party was dissatisfied with the parliamentary results of the named constituencies, it had not asked its supporters to take to the streets in protest, as the supporters of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had been doing.

He said the NPP as a law abiding political party would use legitimate means such as the courts to challenge results that the party was not satisfied with.

Mr Mac Manu who was presenting evidence to back the party’s claim that it had won the contested Techiman South parliamentary seat, said because the NDC lost the seat, it had resorted to lies, deceits and propaganda just to throw dust in the eyes of people.

According to him, the reason why the NDC had decided not to challenge the results of the Techiman South in court was because the party did not want to be subjected to the rigorous scrutiny of the court system because it did not have any evidence to prove in court.

NDC’s defeat

He said the NDC, including its flagbearer John Dramani Mahama; General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia; Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, and the parliamentary candidate for the Techiman South constituency, Mr Christopher Baasongti Beyere, had all given different figures of the Techiman South parliamentary elections.

“They cannot tell consistent lies,” Mr MacManu noted, pointing out that since the Techiman South parliamentary results had been collated and declared, the only option for the NDC to overturn the results, if they had any legitimate claim, was to go to court.

He said the NPP was ever ready to meet the NDC in court, adding that the party (NPP) was not afraid of the court system and that the party in 2012 used the court system to challenge even the presidential results.

He said the NPP’s parliamentary candidate for the Techiman South, Martin Adjei Korsah won the seat with 49,682 votes as against the NDC’s Beyere’s 49,205 votes.

Security

Mr Mac Manu was of the view that the NDC and its supporters had resorted to street protests because the party had always sensed defeat even before the elections, and would therefore want to engage in unlawful conducts, praising the security agencies for the professional manner in which they had handled NDC’s street protests.

For him, the election was conducted free and fair and that many observer missions, including the European Union and Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) had all reported on that.

He has, therefore, called on the NDC’s flagbearer to call to order the supporters of the party for engaging in unlawful, violent street protests after the elections.