Accra, Dec. 19, GNA- The Electoral Commission (EC) has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo and President-Elect John Mahama to urge their supporters to stay away from collation centres to ensure a smooth completion of remaining results.
The Commission has called on the National Security Taskforce to ensure the safety of its officials to enable the collation exercise to proceed unhindered.
At a media briefing on the status of the remaining nine constituencies, EC Chairperson Jean Mensa said that any declarations made by officials from those constituencies would not be recognized, as they did not follow the required procedures for collation.
“In the case of Okaikwei Central, a winner was declared without collating results from 31 polling stations…at the Ablekuma North constituency, a winner was declared without collating results from 62 polling stations.
“Ppholding such unlawful collations and declarations will set a bad precedent for our country and set us back to the dark days,” she said.
The EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Mensa, attributed the delay in completing the collation and declaration of the outstanding constituencies to the actions of political party officials, who directed their supporters to besiege the collation centers.
“Party supporters besieged these centers destroyed pink sheets required for the coalition as well as results collation forms in some areas. In some instances, they vandalised and destroyed the desktop computers set up to collate the results electronically.
“Sadly, they beat up our staff and threatened them with death and ultimately brought proceedings at the constituency coalition centres to a halt,” Mrs. Mensa said
Mrs. Mensa explained that the Electoral Commission (EC), in collaboration with the security task force and political parties, had initially resumed the collation process at the Tesano Police Depot, which led to the declaration of three constituencies—Akwatia, Fanteakwa North, and Suhum.
However, this was later halted after the Ghana Police Service advised discontinuation based on intelligence reports indicating that party supporters were planning to besiege the venue.
The remaining constituencies still awaiting collation include Ablekuma North, Okaikwei Central, Tema Central, Dome Kwabenya, Nsawam Adoagyiri, Techiman South, Obuasi East, and Ahafo Ano North.
GNA