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The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Justin Frimpong Kodua, has revealed that the party is firmly convinced its candidate won the Ablekuma North parliamentary election. He also expressed strong opposition to what the party describes as a questionable rerun process initiated by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Speaking on PM Express on JoyNews, monitored by Elvisanokyenews.net, NPP General Secretary explained that the party had completed its own collation using pink sheets from all polling stations before approaching the Electoral Commission’s collation center.
He raised several concerns about the EC’s conduct, citing inconsistencies and a lack of clarity regarding the collation process.
“The New Patriotic Party, our modus operandi has been that before we go to the Collation Center, we scan all our pink sheets. So we scanned all our 281 pink sheets and collated our results. So before we went to the Electoral Commission, we knew our candidate had obtained 34,613 as against NDC candidate 34,199, a difference of 414 votes so we were very sure.
“The first question we are posing to the Electoral Commission is: When was the collation for Gloryland Hotel done? In the release issued by Mr. Tettey, it had the 19th pruning station, but conspicuously, Gloryland Hotel is not part of the 19th. So the question that we are posing to the Electoral Commission is: When was the collation for Gloryland Hotel done?” He questioned.
Justin Frimpong Kodua questioned the Electoral Commission on how it concluded that just three polling stations were yet to be collated when it made its announcement.
According to him political parties serve only as observers in the process, not as decision-makers of the outcome.
“Two, how did the Electoral Commission arrive at the collation that’s left with three standing police stations? We want to know the process. Because we know that in collating results, it is not done by political parties. Political parties are there as witnesses, and it’s the Electoral Commission that does the collation. So how did we arrive at the three outstanding pronunciations? Which means that certainly there was an officer from the Electoral Commission, there was a Presiding Officer, and we all know how collations are done in this country.”
“When, after the close, the Presiding Officers at the respective polling stations take the statement of polls, after they have counted the ballot papers, they are able to determine the number each candidate got then they fill it in the statement of poll. Afterwards, agents sign, the Presiding Officers also sign. Then each party is given a copy of the statement of poll, or what we commonly refer to as the pink sheet.” He stated.
Recounting events at Ablekuma North, Mr. Kodua described what he termed as “drama” that unfolded, including the burning of ballot papers at a school and the disruption of EC operations. He questioned the Electoral Commission’s decision to hold a rerun in 19 polling stations, calling it a backward step lacking transparency.
“We all saw the drama that happened at Ablekuma North: ballot papers were burnt at where they were kept in the school, officers being dragged from the Electoral Commission collation center, the distraction that happened over there. So when we were doing the collation, at the point the Electoral Commission didn’t even have some of their pink sheets because they were destroyed. So NPP even gave some of our pink sheets for them to also rely on to call for the collation of some of the polling stations.
“As I speak to you, some of our pink sheets are with the Electoral Commission because they called to rely on them and they wanted to keep them for record, and we went through all these processes. So how come they have turned around to run polls again in 19 polling stations?” He quizzed
Source: Elvisanokyenews.net
