15 hours Ago By Ghana News
By Edward Acquah Accra, Dec. 25, GNA – The Electoral Commission (EC) has officially gazetted the parliamentary election results for 274 constituencies and has submitted them to the Clerk of Parliament. However, the Commission has not yet finalized the results for the Ablekuma North and Dome Kwabenya constituencies, as the re-collation of results for these two constituencies was suspended last Saturday.
At a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, Dr. Bossman Asare, the Deputy Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC) in charge of Corporate Services, announced that the Commission was in discussions with relevant stakeholders to set a date for the re-collation of results for the Ablekuma North and Dome Kwabenya constituencies. He reassured the public that the results for these two constituencies would be finalized before the swearing-in of the 9th Parliament on January 7, 2025.
“We are hopeful that the two outstanding constituencies will have their Members of Parliament-elect very, very soon, way before the swearing-in in Parliament,” Dr Asare said. The EC on Saturday, December 21, 2024, completed the collation of results for 7 outstanding constituencies whose declaration was in contention. The constituencies are: Obuasi East, Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Tema Central, Ahafo Ano North, Okaikwei Central, Ahafo Ano South Constituency, and Techiman South.
However, the re-collation of results for Ablekuma North and Dome-Kwabenya constituencies were truncated over incomplete pink sheets. Regarding the Ablekuma North constituency, the Electoral Commission (EC) stated that it was still awaiting the results from 37 polling stations before it could make a final decision. In the case of Dome Kwabenya, the EC explained that the hard copies of pink sheets needed to verify the results for three polling stations were not provided by the political parties.
This led to the suspension of the re-collation process for the constituency. Dr. Bossman Asare, Deputy EC Chair, rejected criticisms that the re-collation exercise was illegal.
He clarified that the earlier declarations of results in the affected constituencies did not follow due process, as the Returning Officers were under duress when making the declarations. Dr. Asare emphasized that the EC would not validate an illegal process, which was why the decision was made to re-collate the results for the constituencies in question.
“While the C.I.s are specific that you cannot re-collate after declarations, we want to state that those declarations should follow due process.
Declarations that we do not re-collate are those that follow due process. “The current ones are an illegality, and they cannot be upheld by the Commission,” he said. Dr.
Bossman Asare explained that the re-collation of results was not a new practice, citing examples from the 2004 elections where results from constituencies such as Zabzugu-Tatale, Tolon, Yapei-Kusawgu, and Pru were re-collated due to irregularities in the collation process. In the December 7, 2024, elections, Ghanaians voted to elect Former President John Dramani Mahama as President, along with 276 Members of Parliament. The newly elected President will be sworn into office on January 7, 2025.
GNA.
