The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was yesterday declared winners of the disputed Sene West Constituency in the Bono East Region election bringing its total number of seats to 137.
It is the same number of seats that their opponents, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), is holding per the official declaration of the Electoral Commission (EC) following the December 7, 2020 general election.
With the latest development, the only independent candidate from Fomena in the Ashanti Region will decide which party should form the majority in Parliament to control government business in the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic scheduled to be sworn in on January 7, 2021.
The independent MP, who first came to Parliament on the ticket of the NPP, has already made it clear that he is going to work with the NPP to form the Majority in Parliament.
The Sene West ballot counting delayed because a hoodlum snatched a ballot box at Tato-Battor, which was one of the polling stations in the constituency during the election on December 7, thereby disrupting the proceedings.
The hoodlum, Christian Nukpeta, 39, has since been jailed three months and has also been banned from election-related activities in Ghana for the next for five years.
He was also fined GH¢3,600 or spend additional six months in jail in default.
The disruptions by the hoodlum compelled the NPP to seek redress in court and yesterday the High Court in Wenchi presided over by Justice Fedrick Anorld Nawura asked both the NPP and NDC to go back and complete the process of counting ballots from the Tato-Battor polling station.
The court also awarded cost of 14,000 to the NPP as the plaintiff which filed the suit in the court complaining that the ballot box was tampered with.
The counting was subsequently done and the NDC polled 13,116 to beat the NPP candidate who polled 13,100 votes.
Lead lawyers for the NPP were Nana Obiri Boahen and Nana Sekyere Boateng, while NDC was represented by Victor Kojoga Adawudu and Elixabeth Ofosu Adjare.
NPP leaders, including Dan Botwe, Bono East Minister Kofi Amoakohene and Bono Minister Evelyn Ama Kumi Richardson and regional chairmen were all seen in court.
The NDC also came with a team including its general secretary, Johnson Aseidu Nketia, among others.
From Daniel Y. Dayee, Wenchi