Deputy Director of Operations at the EC, Samuel Tettey
The Electoral Commission (EC) has called on the Ghana Police Service to provide adequate security to facilitate the completion of the re-collation of results for the Ablekuma North constituency.
This appeal follows significant disruptions at its Greater Accra Office on Friday, January 17, 2025, leading to the suspension of the process.
In a statement released on Friday, January 17, 2025, the Deputy Director of Operations, Samuel Tettey, expressed concern over the development.
He stated that the police failed to augment security at its Greater Accra Regional Office, leading to the chaotic incident.
“The police however did not augment security at the premises of the Collation Centre (Old Head Office) and the new Corporate Head Office leading to some party supporters invading the Old Head Office of the Commission and destroying the property of the Commission including furniture and louvre blades. Some of the supporters also invaded the premises of the New Corporate Head Office of the Commission on motor bicycles. They issued threats to the Commission and the staff. This instilled fear in the staff and caused all staff members to flee because the environment had become unsafe as a result of the invasion. As a result of this, work has come to a standstill,” the statement noted.
The EC further reiterated its commitment to ensuring that the people of Ablekuma North have a duly elected Member of Parliament.
“The threats to lives and property are unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue. The Commission is working round the clock to ensure that the people of Ablekuma North have their Member of Parliament. We need the cooperation of the Police to enable us to achieve this,” it added.
On Friday, January 17, 2025, a group of well-built men besieged the Greater Accra Regional Office of the EC ahead of the 7th attempt to re-collate the parliamentary election results of the Ablekuma North Constituency.
Levers of the windows of the offices could be seen broken across the corridor of the EC building.
The chairs, tables, and police barricades in the room where the re-collation exercise was supposed to happen were also scattered all over the place.
Background
The EC, at the Greater Accra Regional office, on December 10, 2024, declared the candidate of the National Democratic Congress, Ewurabena Aubynn, as the winner for the constituency parliamentary seat, beating NPP’s Nana Akua Owusu Afriyieh, a former MP and the current Deputy Chief Executive of the Coastal Development Authority.
However, the EC later nullified the declaration of Ewurabena Aubynn as Member of Parliament-Elect for the area, stating that the results for the constituency would be re-collated.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa, explained that NDC’s Ewurabena Aubynn was declared the winner of the constituency’s seat without the results of 62 polling stations.
“In the Ablekuma North constituency, 219 polling station results were used to declare a winner instead of 281 polling station results. The Commission would not uphold that declaration,” she said at a press conference.
Since then, there have been six re-collation attempts which have been marred by disagreements on the authenticity of pink sheets presented by some of the parties in the election.
The re-collation follows a High Court ruling on Saturday, January 4, 2025, which granted an application by the NPP seeking to compel the EC to complete the collation of parliamentary results for the constituency.
Justice Forson Agyapong, who presided over the case, ruled in favour of the NPP, issuing an order of mandamus that compelled the EC to complete the collation process.
In his judgment, Justice Agyapong stated that the EC had failed to collate results from 31 outstanding polling stations in the constituency, which was a breach of its obligations.
The court subsequently ordered the EC to collate the results from the remaining polling stations and incorporate them into the already collated figures.
Read the full statement below:
JKB/AE
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