The 2016 elections may have been over with the declaration of the opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo as president-elect, but the dust is yet to settle.
The New Patriotic Party is raising alarm over what it says are massive irregularities in the parliamentary elections in the Tamale Central constituency in the Northern Region and the Upper West Akyem in the Eastern Region.
The party is accusing the governing NDC of masterminding those irregularities and has vowed to go to court to have the results of those elections annulled.
Tamale Central
According to the NPP, results of 12 polling stations in the Tamale Central constituency have been compromised.
The party cited over voting in those polling stations which they say tilted the results in favour of the incumbent parliamentarian.
Inusah Fuseini polled 38,531 to beat his closest contender, Dr. Barhama Anyass of the NPP who polled 25,230.
But the NPP candidate insists the incumbent’s votes have been padded.
His lawyer Hassan Tampoli, told Joy News they raised concerns over the irregularities in those 12 polling stations and demanded the Returning Officer to invalidate those votes.
According to him, they demanded for a recount of the votes at the polling stations and a re-collation of the results at the collation centre in accordance to CI 94, the law governing the election, but the Returning Officer flatly denied them the opportunity for a recount.
Even on the face of the pink sheets there was over voting, he suggested.
Hassan Tampoli said the party will be meeting the EC tomorrow to have the issue discussed and call for a re-election, failing which they will go to court.
PNC Claim
The NPP is not the only party aggrieved by the parliamentary election in the Tamale Central constituency.
The Parliamentary candidate for the Peoples National Convention Salifu Iddrisu is also accusing the incumbent MP of compromising the election.
Apart from the over voting in 12 polling stations, which he also avers, he contended that there were two alien polling stations which were introduced which also compromised the results of the election.
One of the polling stations was the Mallam Fadi mosque, he claimed.
He has sworn to take the matter up in court, if the EC fails to organise a re-run of the election.
But the NDC has dismissed the claims. The party’s Northern Regional Secretary Lawyer Rauf says the claims by the two parties are “dead on arrival.”
Contrary to claims by Tampoli, he said the NPP agents did not demand for a recount of the elections at the polling stations and wondered why they are now making such demands after the results have been announced.
According to him, director elections of NPP in the region appended his signature to the results before it was declared and so did the PNC director.
He does not understand why both men will now be crying foul. He said even if the claims of over-voting in those 12 polling stations were true, the results from those polling stations cannot offset the 13,000 lead by Inusah Fuseini.
He also dismissed the claim that two new polling stations were created by the EC at the blindside of the two parties, insisting that there were polling agents and sympathisers of the NPP and PNC who voted in those polling stations.
He wondered how the two parties would have their supporters voting and agents superintending votes in stations they did not know.
Lawyer Rauf accused the NPP agents of scattering the ballot boxes in the 12 polling stations only to create chaos after the elections.
Upper West Akyem
The situation in Upper West Akyem is no different.
Joy FM’s Eastern Region correspondent Maxwell Kudekor reports the NPP candidate is not happy with the circumstances surrounding the declaration of the results.
Narrating the circumstances, Kudekor said there was no declaration at the collation centre because of claims of over voting at some polling stations by the NPP candidate.
The NPP candidate Eugene Sackey requested for the annulment of votes in those areas but the EC declined.
Just when there was about to be the declaration, chanting supporters of the two parties started spraying pepper in the air, a situation which made it unsafe and difficult for the results to be declared.
The security personnel therefore had to secure the ballot boxes until at a later date when the results were declared.
Eugene Sackey polled 16,661 votes whilst the NDC candidate Derrick Essifu Bekoe polled 17,091 votes to win the seat.
But the NPP candidate has petitioned the EC to annul results of the election and organise a re-run or he will go to court in the next 21 days.
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