Frank Asiedu Bekoe
The High Court in Koforidua has dismissed a petition challenging the election of Frank Asiedu Bekoe, popularly known as Protozoa, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suhum, upholding his victory in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
The petition was filed by Kwadjo Asante, an independent candidate in the election, who asked the court to annul the results and order a fresh parliamentary election, citing alleged irregularities in the conduct of the polls.
In its ruling delivered yesterday, the court held that the petitioner failed to adduce sufficient and credible evidence to support the allegations contained in the petition.
The court consequently affirmed the declaration of Mr. Asiedu Bekoe as the validly elected MP for the constituency and awarded GH¢200,000 in costs against the petitioner. The respondents had initially sought GH¢500,000 following the year-long trial.
Mr. Asiedu Bekoe won the Suhum seat with 16,855 votes, narrowly beating the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Prince Kwadwo Addo Tabiri, who polled 15,259 votes. Kwadjo Asante placed third with 14,860 votes.
Speaking to journalists after the ruling, Mr. Asiedu Bekoe thanked the people of Suhum for their support and prayers throughout the legal process, describing the court’s decision as a clear vindication of the will of the electorate.
“The case that was taken to court involved six polling stations where the petitioner claimed there were infractions. Even in those polling stations, by all calculations, I won there,” he said.
He explained that Suhum has 165 polling stations and one special voting centre, making a total of 166.
According to him, results from 160 polling stations were collated by the Electoral Commission, while the remaining six became the subject of protest by the independent candidate and his supporters, who allegedly opposed their inclusion at the collation stage.
“Even though I won all the six polling stations, the votes from the 160 polling stations were enough to make me the winner. So I was not moved when they said they would not allow the EC to add the six polling stations. The EC therefore declared the results without those six polling stations,” he stated.
Mr. Asiedu Bekoe noted that despite later challenging the outcome in court, the petitioner’s polling agents had signed all Statements of Poll and Declaration of Results forms, commonly known as pink sheets, without recording any objections at the polling stations.
“It was only at the collation centre that issues were raised. In court, the petitioner himself could not even mount the witness box, and he failed to call a single polling station agent to testify. He relied on collation agents, whose evidence fell flat,” he said.
According to the MP, the petitioner later applied for additional witnesses, but one of them turned out to be an agent of another candidate, who testified that no irregularities occurred at the polling station he supervised.
“He could not adduce any evidence that irregularities took place or that his supporters were prevented from voting. The court therefore threw out the case and awarded costs against him,” Mr. Asiedu Bekoe added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu