By Godwill Arthur-Mensah 

Accra, June 20, GNA–The Electoral Commission (EC) says it has not reached a point to conduct fresh parliamentary elections in the Ablekuma North constituency, and it must exhaust all the electoral processes before taking any decision regarding re-running the polls in the constituency.  

Dr. Bossman Asare, Deputy Chair of the EC, made this known when he appeared before the Parliament’s Committee of the Whole on Thursday, June 19, to answer questions filed by Mr. Nelson-Rockson Dafeamekpor, the NDC Member of Parliament for South Dayi and Majority Chief Whip. 

Dr Asare, who represented the EC Chair Jean Adukwei Mensa, said the commission only needed police protection to continue with the collation of the remaining polling stations. 

He said: Mr. Speaker, per the processes that have gone on so far, I don’t think it will be good for our democracy to re-run the polls.” 

Dr. Asare said so far, the EC had collated 278 out of the 281 polling stations in the constituency and left with three remaining polling stations to end the process. 

He urged the representatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) to cooperate with the Commission to complete it. 

Asked whether the EC had received any court order injuncting the continuation of the collation of the results, Dr Asare said it had not been served with any court order.  

However, he said, the National Election Security taskforce informed the Commission that it was waiting for a legal advice from the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on the way forward whether to provide security protection for continuation of the collation of the results or otherwise. 

Dr Asare said the collation of the parliamentary election results in the Ablekuma North constituency had been participatory with the involvement of all the political parties’ agents. 

Asked about the issue of some political party agents disputing some of the pink sheets, Dr Asare said the EC’s presiding officers in the three remaining polling stations would be available to authenticate the signatures of party agents who signed the declaration results. 

He referenced instances where the EC relied on scanned pink sheets and carbon copies when the original pink sheets were not available. 

Dr Asare said after the Commission had exhausted all the electoral process and was at a stalemate, the EC would petition the Parliament’s Independent Constitutional Body Committee on the way forward. 

The Deputy Chair of the EC gave the assurance that the Commission would always protect the integrity of the country’s electoral process by ensuring fairness and transparency to all political parties. 

He said the Commission was not interested in the outcome of the elections but in ensuring a smooth and transparent electoral process. 

GNA 

Edited by Benjamin Mensah