Ofosuhene Asante Manasseh, the Tema Metropolitan electoral officer of the Electoral Commission (EC) in the just-ended 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, has detailed a series of events that led to the declaration of Ebi Bright, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, as the Member of Parliament-elect for the Tema Central constituency.

According to Ofosuhene, the results he used to declare Ebi Bright as the MP-elect were inaccurate.

In a letter to the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa, sighted by GhanaWeb, he detailed how he was coerced into declaring Ebi Bright with inaccurate results.

“In the process of collating the 148 polling station results, the NDC agents flagged about 12 polling station results. These were set aside for collation to continue. The flagged results were then revisited and resolved, leaving only the last three.

“The three-polling station results in contention were P.S Code C231707, C231309B, and C231808. The NDC agents and their party leadership and supporters insisted that we should set aside the results of the three polling stations because they were not signed by the presiding officers and declare their candidate, Ebi Bright, as the winner.

“We, however, disagreed with them and insisted that once the individual results were the same, we would add them and declare the results. We added C231808, leaving two polling stations. At this point, they started threatening me and my staff, insisting that we should not add it.

“In fact, Rockson Dafeamakpor kept threatening me throughout the collation, quoting the law whenever I disagreed with him. I kept insisting that if they had any issue, they should seek redress from the appropriate quarters after the declaration,” part of the letter said.

Ofosuhene provided instances where his life, along with those of his fellow EC officials, was threatened. According to him, at one point, he had to dress in a police uniform to avert potential death by agitated NDC supporters at the collation center.

“They said they would not wait and seek redress in any court and that I should set aside the three other polling stations' results and declare their candidate the winner. One of their national executives, Basintale, started inciting their supporters, who had massed up and invaded the collation center, with chanting and revolutionary songs.

“At this juncture, I said if they were not going to allow me to add the rest, I would stop the collation and refer it to my superiors. This did not go down well with them. Then Basintale came up to me, heckled me, and held my hand, insisting I declare their candidate the winner by force. I managed to release myself from his grip as some of his supporters were about to pounce on me.

“The police quickly whisked me into one of their offices. Some of my officers and our materials were also secured in the office. The NDC supporters who had massed up at the regional police command then started attacking the police to force their way into the room where I was kept.

“The police decided to dress me in police attire to disguise myself and escape through a window at the back, but their supporters were gathered there too, so they had to bring me back into the inner room where I was being kept,” he detailed.

He has since asked the EC to annul the results of the parliamentary elections in Tema Central.



“As the situation degenerated, things were getting out of control. It was at this juncture that one of the police commanders, Chief Supt. Osman of Ashaiman Divisional Police, entered the room and advised that the situation was getting out of hand. He said the NDC had called more of their supporters to come and attack us, and that if I didn't declare now, their irate supporters and thugs might overpower the police.

“It was therefore better for me to declare the results so that our lives would be secure and saved. At this point, I was so terrified and traumatized that I told my colleague officer for Tema West (John Nunoo) to tell my collation officer to get the results and give them to the returning officer (Kwasi Brobbey) to declare without the two polling stations.

“However, he could not locate the returning officer or his deputies. So I asked him to declare the results, and he declared Ebi Bright of NDC the winner with 18,539 votes against 18,421 votes obtained by Charles Forson of NPP. After the declaration, all their irate supporters jubilated and left the premises of the Tema Regional Police Command, thereby de-escalating the tension.”

Ofosuhene continued, “It is my humble opinion that the declaration was illegal because it was not done by the returning officer for Tema Central (Kwasi Brobbey), who is the one issued with the Writ of Election and therefore authorized to declare the parliamentary results for Tema Central.

“The Writ of Election, as well as Form One C and One D, have all not been filled and signed by the returning officer. It was also declared under duress, coercion, and threats of death. I therefore pray the Commission to nullify the results declaration.”







AM/EK

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