Joe Danquah files suit at court

THE New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Wenchi West Constituency in the December 7 elections, Mr Joe Danquah, has filed a petition at the Sunyani High Court, seeking an order to nullify both the presidential and parliamentary elections in the constituency, and issue a writ for fresh elections to be organised in the constituency.

The petition, filed on behalf of Mr Danquah by a Sunyani lawyer, Nana Obiri Boahen, said the collation of the results was done in the presence of only the agents of the NDC parliamentary candidate, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, to the total exclusion of agents of the other parties including the NPP.

The petitioner said there were material non-compliance with provisions of PNDCL 284 by the Wenchi District Electoral Officer and the returning officer, which affected the results of the elections. He said at the beginning of the collation of the results, there were only four ballot boxes from the various polling stations.

He said the district electoral officer and the returning officer refused to await the arrival of all the 141 ballot boxes and to physically count and identify the boxes before commencement of collation.

The petitioner said the two election officials also refused to allow entry of the ballot boxes into the collation room when the vehicles supposed to be carrying them did arrive at Nsawkaw, the constituency headquarters, several hours after the collation had begun.

According to the petitioner, the election officials refused to parade all the 141 ballot boxes at the collation centre for physical identification and cross-checking with list and code numbers of polling station when requested by his (petitioner?s) collation agents in a bid to establish the emergence of four results of dubious origin collated in addition to the original 141 on the NDC collated list. He alleged that a corrupt or illegal act was committed in connection with the election by the NDC candidate by way of carting in his official vehicle an undisclosed number of ballot boxes from Akianyakrom to Bui Camp deep into the night in the full glare of the petitioner. He said that in compliance with a protest by his collation agents that the NDC collated results were four polling stations more than the official 141 polling stations, the election officials and all party agents present with the exception of NDC agents registered their resentment, but the NDC candidate and his supporters left the room to jubilate that they had won the election in the constituency. He pointed out that there was no official declaration of results but some figures which indicated that the NDC had won both the parliamentary and presidential elections found their way on the Internet and on the scoreboard.

The petitioner?s stated that the absence of his agents from the collation centre denied him any opportunity to challenge any spurious figures that could be mentioned and any omissions or figures assigned to any particular party.