By Laudia Sawer / Mavis Quansah
Tema, Dec. 10, GNA – Ms Ebi Bright, the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Tema Central, has been declared a member of parliament-elect amidst confusion.
An official from the Electoral Commission declared her the winner at about 2100 hours on Monday after several hours of collation and disagreement among party agents over some pink sheet discrepancies.
Collation of the parliamentary result for the constituency had to be postponed and moved from the original collation centre to the Tema Regional Police Command due to security concerns.
The collation at the police command was, however, characterised by the presence of party bigwigs of both the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), misunderstanding, and party supporters besieging the premises, breaking security in the night, demanding a declaration of the result.
With the intense pressure and the whisking to safety of Mr Manasseh Ofosuhene Asante, the Tema Metro Electoral Officer, the official whose name was not given declared Ms Ebi Bright as the winner with 18,539 votes and that of Mr Charles Forson of the NPP, which stood at 18,421, and the independent candidate, Mr Frederick Aniagyei, gaining 207 votes with 141 rejected ballots.
The declaration led to the large crowd of NDC supporters at the collation centre jubilating.
Ms Hannah Bisiw, the National Women’s Organiser of the NDC, who had earlier accused the EC of being in bed with the NPP, leading to the delay of the declaration, joyously said the party had painted Tema East, Tema Central, and Tema West green.
GNA