A Magistrate Court in Kumasi has ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to return 584 voters to their original constituencies after discovering they had fraudulently transferred their votes to the Manhyia South Constituency.
This decision aims to maintain the integrity of the electoral process and prevent voter manipulation.
The court, presided over by Deborah Gyaawa Donko, reached the decision after repeated no-shows on three separate occasions by the affected voters, who failed to defend their eligibility to transfer to Manhyia South Constituency.
Owusu Bempah, Manhyia South Constituency New Patriotic Party (NPP) Research and Election Affairs Officer, uncovered a shocking surge in voter transfers to the constituency during the voter transfer exercise.
Suspecting foul play, the NPP, led by parliamentary candidate, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, took the matter to court.
The party produced landlords as witnesses, revealing that 584 individuals had illegally used their addresses as residences.
Despite multiple court summonses, only three individuals appeared to defend themselves, and were subsequently cleared to vote in Manhyia South.
However, the court ordered the EC to return the remaining 584 individuals to their original voting constituencies, deeming their transfers fraudulent.
The Manhyia South NPP Secretary, Haruna Alhassan, attributed the party’s success in exposing the fraud to their vigilant and diligent executives.
“We identified the anomaly during voter transfer exercise but waited for the voter exhibition period to challenge it, leading to the court case,” he explained.
Victory for Democracy
The Constituency Research and Election Affairs Officer, Owusu Bempah, hailed the court’s verdict as a triumph for democracy, stating that justice had been served.
According to him, the development underscores the importance of vigilant electoral oversight in maintaining the integrity of Ghana’s democratic process.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi