Patrick Yaw Boamah, Okaikwei Central Member of Parliament, has revealed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate Baba Sadiq’s first declaration was marred by irregularities and threats against electoral officers from members of the umbrella family.
In an interview with Kwabena Agyapong on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM’s Frontline, he claimed that NDC members prevented the collation of results from some of the polling stations where he won by large margins.
He alleged that some of the NPP members present at the collation centre were also threatened.
‘’There are 140 polling stations in my constituency, with the special voting exercise making the polling stations 141. After the elections, all the political parties with their agents were at the collation centre in the presence of the returning officer. The results were entered one after the other, and we finished with about 139 out of 141 polling stations. So while they were entering the final polling stations, the NDC stormed the collation centre and prevented the declaration, which was in my favour. I was projected to have won, which was captured by the media.
The next day, the EC decided to continue in their office, but the NDC opposed the results from 31 polling stations where I had won with wider margins and wanted only the declaration to be made in polling stations that were in their favour. They threatened the returning officer and locked up the place with our agents and NPP members inside. These incidents were captured by the media, and so, I am not peddling falsehoods,’’ he added.
The MP went on to say that the re-collation was done transparently and that he is satisfied with what happened.
He explained that the Constitutional Instrument (C.I 127) that governs our elections requires that collation be done for all polling stations, not just some of them.
The Electoral Commission (EC) on Saturday, December 22, 2024, recollated results from disputed constituencies, including Okaikwei Central.
After the re-collation exercise, the private legal practitioner and incumbent was declared the winner.
He secured 21,099 votes, while Sadiq garnered 19,368 of the total votes cast.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
