Counsel for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Godwin Tameklo on has hit back at lawyers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over claims that the declaration of Ebi Bright as winner of the Tema Central December 7, 2024 parliamentary election was not done by an Electoral Commission (EC) official.
Taking his turn to oppose the mandamus application seeking to compel the EC to collate results in four constituencies, he argued that the NPP’s own applicant admitted in his affidavit that there was a declaration and that it was done without including two polling stations.
To substantiate his claim, Mr Tameklo referred the court to a letter written by one of the NPP applicants, Charles Forson who wrote to the EC demanding the Commission to direct the returning officer to properly collate and declare in accordance with law.
He further argued that there was proper declaration by the EC hence there was no need to collate the results.
“It is not the duty of this court to make a determination on who won an election, they are inviting you on a very slippery path. My lord, in a mandamus application, if it is within the remit of this court to make findings of alleged thuggery, intimidation, duress and breaches of law “What then will we do in an election petition,” he said adding that mandamus cannot be used to determine a disputed demand.”
Again, counsel made reference to a letter written by the then Minority Caucus dated Dec 21, 2020 requesting the EC to re-collate results in some alleged disputed constituencies.
He said the EC’s response was that, “Once results have been declared, a dissatisfied party cannot request for recollection.
“Today the EC is saying that after declaration, they can go back and possibly re-declare that same results. Where is that legal duty?,” he said
Earlier, lawyers for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have firmed up their argument that the collation of the results in the Tema Central Constituency could not be completed due alleged intimidation with a claim that the person who declared the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Ebi Bright was not the returning officer of the EC.
Moving the mandamus application at the General Jurisdiction of the High Court in Accra on Wednesday (Jan 1, 2025), Gary Nimako Marfo pointed the court to a video which was played in open court.
He alleged that the person seen holding an A4 sheet in the video on the day of the said purported declaration was one Mr John Nunoo and not the EC’s returning officer, Mr Kwesi Brobbey.
As a result, he is asking the court to compel the EC to complete the collation process and declare who won the election for that constituency.
Meanwhile, in the video that was played in open court to support the NPP’s argument, the Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale, was heard saying, “Our issue is not with the police, our issue is with the EC Officer. We will bring him out to declare Ebi Bright, whether he likes it or not he will declare the results here and if the NPP does not like it, they can go to court”.
Mr Marfo said, “If the position canvassed in the affidavit in opposition of the interested parties is made to stand it will be a very dangerous recipe in this country. Because all what it will mean is that without the full complement of votes from all polling stations, anybody at all can just mass up at the collation centre to purport to make a declaration, which duty rest with authorised and determined officers of the EC to be done in a prescribed manner according to law.”
“Collation without incorporating the entire polling station votes, can never be called collation in the eyes of the law but what it seeks to do is that persons who have gone to cast their ballot are being disenfranchised,” he said.
Justin Amenuvor, counsel for the Electoral Commission in the mandamus application hearing has prayed the High Court to make appropriate orders that will enable the Commission to complete the collation process in the various collation centers in dispute.
“If this court does not make the appropriate orders for the EC to go and finish its work in the presence of the very limited number of persons outlined in the Constitutional Instrument (C.I 127) a dangerous precedent for our democracy will be set whereby all manner of thugs, hoodlums, will evade constituency collation centres and even without the appropriate forms prescribed in the C.I. for the election raise the hand of somebody holding an A4 sheet and saying that it is done,” he said.
An Accra High Court has dismissed the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction to hear the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) mandamus application.
