The Electoral Commission (EC) has explained that the decision to re-collate after the declaration of election results was not something that was new and that some past elections have witnessed similar issues.
The EC cited the 1998 District Level Elections in the Dompoase Kokwaado Electoral Area in the Komenda Edina Eguafo District and the 2004 parliamentary elections in the Pru, Tolon, Yapei-Kusawgu and Zabzugu constituencies as examples where re-collation have happened before after declaration of election results.
It said in 2004, the EC under the leadership of Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, re-collated and overturned parliamentary results for the Pru Constituency and declared the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate as the Member of Parliament-Elect instead of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate who had earlier been declared winner.
Again, during the 1998 District Level Elections in the Dompoase Kokwaado Electoral Area in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) District in the Central Region, the Electoral Commission under the leadership of Dr Afari Gyan, overturned an earlier declaration and went on to declare the right candidate as winner.
The explanation from the EC is in response to questions by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on why the EC has decided to re-collate parliamentary results in nine constituencies following disputes the 2024 elections.
To the NDC, the move by the EC was an irregularity and has therefore decided to reject the re-collation done by the EC already in seven constituencies. Two of them are still outstanding because of now, there is still a dispute over some of the results declaration forms [pink sheets] from some polling stations.
Emphasizing that re-collation of results following violent disruption of the collation process was not new, the EC again quoted parliamentary elections in 2004 at Tolon, Yapei-Kusawgu, Zabzugu as where similar incidents have happened before apart from the Pru example.
The commission indicated that in 2004, it re-collated parliamentary results for the Tolon constituency and declared the right candidate as winner.
Again in 2004, it said it re-collated parliamentary results for the Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency and declared the right candidate as winner same as the Zabzugu Constituency where a similar incident also happened in 2004.
Background
On Saturday, December 21, the EC re-collated results in seven out of nine constituencies where there are disputes following incomplete collation or a disrupted collation process following the December 7, 2024 parliamentary elections.