Our Parliamentary candidate won Techiman South by 293 vote margin – NDC

The Minority in Parliament has questioned the veracity of the Parliamentary election results for the Techiman South Constituency, declared by the Electoral Commission.

According to the NDC MPs, the party's parliamentary candidate in the Techiman South constituency, Christopher Beyere Baasongti, won the seat by a vote margin of 293.

The Caucus made the claim on Tuesday, 22 December 2020 when it re-collated the ballots in front of the media to prove its case.

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The presentation was done by Ketu North MP, James Avedzi Klutse.

According to the Minority’s Excel computation, Mr Beyere Baasongti polled 50, 306 as against the governing New Patriotic Party’s 50, 013 votes.

Ahead of the re-collation exercise held by the Minority, the Caucus, in the morning, presented a petition to the Electoral Commission demanding a re-collation of the ballots.

Read the full petition below:

PETITION BY THE NDC CAUCUS IN PARLIAMENT DIRECTED AT THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION TO CAUSE TO BE PROPERLY COLLATED THE 2020 TECHIMAN SOUTH CONSTITUENCY ELECTION RESULTS WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO FURTHER INTENDED ACTIONS ON THE PRESIDENTIAL AND OTHER DISPUTED CONSTITUENCY RESULTS

Petition as follows;

1. That the NDC Caucus of the current Parliament is fully aligned with the contention of our Flagbearer, H.E. John Dramani Mahama and the National Executive Committee of the NDC that the results of the Presidential Elections stands rejected and therefore we await further instruction from the party’s leadership in that regard.

2. That we have received and studied a petition from our Parliamentary Candidate and winner of the Techiman South Parliamentary Election, Christopher Beyere Baasongti on the happenings in Techiman South.

3. That in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections conducted nationally on the 7th of December 2020, the Returning Officer for Techiman South Constituency in the Bono East Region could not collate the results for both the Presidential and the Parliamentary candidates after the Polling Stations results had been counted and all Ballot Boxes sent to the Collation Centre in accordance with C.I. 127.

4. That the Returning Officer delayed the collation exercise with the explanation that there were problems with the results of two polling stations out of the two hundred and sixty-six polling stations in the constituency.

4 That long after midnight, the Agents for the NPP candidate also raised issues with three other polling station results before collation could commence.

5 That the Returning Officer later announced a change of collation centre from the Community centre to the Ahenfie Hall in Techiman.

6 That at the said collation centre, the parliamentary candidates, their representatives and Agents agreed with the Returning Officer to resolve the outstanding issues relating to the five polling stations that were raised by the Returning Officer and the Agents of the NPP candidate.

7 That during the discussion, there emerged serious differences between the Agents as to how to resolve the outstanding issues.

8 That the Regional Director of Elections together with his Deputy advised the way forward in resolving the controversy. While the Agents were doing all they could, to resolve the issues, armed security officers in police and military uniform stormed the centre, drove off the Agents for the NDC candidate from the collation room and in the process brutalised one of them, leaving only the election officers and the NPP Agents in the room.

9 That the sight of the NDC agent, bleeding and moving in their direction, raised tension among the voters who were waiting outside to hear the results of the collation.

10 That in an attempt to ascertain what had happened to the agent, the aforesaid uniformed men opened fire indiscriminately, killing two persons on the spot, and injuring nine others, one of whom died a day after on admission.

11 That due to the state of insecurity at the centre, as a result of the shooting incident, the NDC Candidate and Agents had to advise the voters to leave the centre before taking cover themselves. No collation could have taken place that day in such circumstances and neither the NDC Candidate nor any of his Agents were informed or invited for the purpose of collating the presidential and parliamentary election results at a later date.