A 39-year-old National Democratic Congress (NDC) activist, Christian Nukpeta has been convicted to serve three months in jail for snatching a ballot box.
The NDC activist snatched a ballot box in the Sene West constituency in the Bono East Region on Election Day making the election in that constituency inconclusive.
Christian Nukpeta has also been banned for five years from registering and voting in any election in Ghana.
In addition to the custodial sentence and ban, he is to pay a fine of GH¢3600 or in defaults spend an additional six months in jail. The sentence was handed over to him when he appeared before the Techiman Circuit Court, presided over by Alexander Graham on Friday, December 11, 2020.
Nukpeta, a resident of Tato Bator pleaded guilty to the charge and told the court that, he did not know why he engaged in that act. The court was told that he snatched a Parliamentary ballot box at one of the polling stations in the area when the counting process was ongoing.
It took the intervention of the security personnel at the scene to pursue and arrest him.
Even with that, when the box was returned, it had one of the seals, the one belonging to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate removed.
The Director of Elections at the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Serebour Quaicoe explained the EC has already checked and Christian Nukpeta’s details are in the current register.
He will be “quarantined” in the system and once the EC already has his biometrics, anytime he attempts to register, his details will pop up.
Dr Quaicoe said he would have preferred a more harsher custodial sentence for Nukpeta so that it would serve as a deterrent for others who may want to engage in a similar act in future.
The Sene West Parliamentary result in the Bono East Region is currently outstanding following a court injunction.
The Sene West seat was contested by the incumbent Kwame Ampofo Twumasi of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Kumah Mackay of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Caesar Fomekah of the National Democratic Party (NDP).