The National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus in Parliament early today walked from the State House to the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC) to protest the results of the Techiman South as declared by the EC.
Report says the MPs failed to notified the police as the public order law stipulates.
The Minority Members of Parliament (MPs), led by Haruna Iddrisu, minority leader marched to the entrance of the EC headquarters, where barricades at the place led to a standoff with police.
The protesters initially defied barricades at the Liberation Circle and braved resistance from the police to walk to the Commission’s headquarters area where they had wanted to present a petition “directed at the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.”
It became clear that the NDC MPs did not notify the police about their action as confrontation ensued between the two parties, amidst threating words against the officers.
Mr. Iddrisu explained that the petition was “to cause to be properly collated the 2020 Techiman South Constituency election results without prejudice to further intended actions on the presidential and other disputed constituency results.”
“That the NDC Caucus of the current Parliament is fully aligned with the contention of our Flagbearer, H.E. John Dramani Mahama and the National Executive Committee of the NDC that the results of the Presidential Elections stands rejected and therefore we await further instruction from the party’s leadership in that regard.”
According to him, they have received and studied a petition from their parliamentary candidate and “winner of the Techiman South Parliamentary Election, Christopher Beyere Baasongti on the happenings in Techiman South.”
The Minority Leader alleged that the Returning Officer for Techiman South Constituency in the Bono East Region could not collate the results for both the presidential and the parliamentary candidates after results of the polling stations had been counted and “all ballot boxes sent to the collation centre in accordance with C.I. 127.”
The petition also said that the “Returning Officer delayed the collation exercise with the explanation that there were problems with the results of two polling stations out of the two hundred and sixty-six polling stations in the constituency.”
“That long after mid-night, the Agents for the NPP candidate also raised issues with three other polling station results before collation could commence.”
The NDC MPs indicated that that the Returning Officer later announced a change of collation centre from the Community centre to the Ahenfie Hall in Techiman.
“That at the said collation centre, the Parliamentary Candidates, their representatives and Agents agreed with the Returning Officer to resolve the outstanding issues relating to the five polling stations that were raised by the Returning Officer and the Agents of the NPP candidate.”
“That during the discussion, there emerged serious differences between the Agents as to how to resolve the outstanding issues,” they alleged.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House