Politics of Wednesday, 23 December 2020

Source: kasapafmonline.com

Techiman South: You only have the option to go to court now – NPP tells NDC

Peter Mac Manu, Campaign Manager for the NPP Peter Mac Manu, Campaign Manager for the NPP

The New Patriotic Party has defended the victory of Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah in the parliamentary race at Techiman South constituency asking the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to go to court and challenge the results as declared by the Electoral Commission.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Accra, the Campaign Manager for the NPP, Peter Mac Manu insisted that the NPP parliamentary candidate won the elections by 49,682 votes, whereas the parliamentary candidate for NDC, Christopher Bayire secured 49,205 per the pink sheets available to them.

“Our candidate, Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah was duly elected as MP for Techiman South for the next parliament, January 2021 to January 2025,” he told Journalists.

This follows the minority caucus demand for an open collation of the Techiman South parliamentary results after it stormed the EC headquarters on Tuesday.

According to the Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, it is shocking that the media and civil society groups appear disinterested in their request for the public collation of the results in Techiman South when a similar thing was done in Banda in the same area.

“In Techiman South civil society and the media have argued that the NDC should go to court; my response is going to court with what and for what? because we do not even have declared results. It is only in Nana Akufo-Addo’s government that a candidate will contest an election and results are declared in his absence, results are certified in his absence. And results even as so declared, give us a copy we are in denial for two weeks since the election.

“We demanding justice, when you say go to court I must have something to walk and I must have the results to work with to court, this is the greatest threat to the sustenance of our multiparty democracy. All we are asking for is respect for the electoral laws of Ghana,” Haruna Iddrisu told the media during a protest march at the electoral commission.”

But the NPP has said the Techiman South parliamentary results were not cooked figures but were duly collated and the certified results published by the EC.

“The NDC initially had said that there was no collation at Techiman South. Now they are asking for re-collation. If there was no collation in the first place, how can there be re-collation? But it’s important to point out to the NDC that after results have been collated and declared, the only remedy available to them if they disagree with the collated and declared results is to go to court of competent jurisdiction. But as it is obvious to Ghanaian people, the NDC is not ready to be put to strict proof. All they want to do court public disaffection to the EC and by that reduce the legitimacy of NPP’s victory in the eyes of well-meaning Ghanaians.”

Meanwhile, the Presidential Candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama has accused President Akufo-Addo of colluding with the Electoral Commission (EC) to “fraudulently keep the Techiman South seat” for the ruling NPP.

He’s thus challenged the EC to come out and show Ghanaians their Results Summary sheet and pink sheets for the Techiman South Constituency to quell the simmering tensions.