The Tema Metropolitan Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ofusehene Asante Manasseh, has alleged that he was coerced by prominent members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to declare Ebi Bright as the MP-elect for the Tema Central constituency following Saturday’s polls.
According to Mr Asante, both his life and the lives of his officers were threatened by NDC officials and their angry supporters, forcing him to declare the results in favour of the NDC candidate.
He detailed the events in a letter to the Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, stressing that the declaration should be nullified.
Mr Asante alleged that the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, Nelson Rockson Defeamekpor, the Deputy National Communications Officer of the NDC, Malik Basintale, and other disgruntled NDC supporters besieged the collation centre and pressured him to declare Ebi Bright as the winner while threatening him.
“In fact, Rockson Defeamekpor kept threatening me throughout the collation process, and whenever I disagreed with him on a legal matter, one of their national executives, Basintale, began inciting their supporters, who had gathered and invaded the collation centre, chanting revolutionary songs,” he claimed.
He went on to say that, despite police officers being assigned to the collation centre for his protection, and took him to the Tema Regional Police Command for safety, Mr Defeamekpor and Mr Basintale drove their supporters to the police premises and insisted that he declared Ebi Bright as the winner.
“My life, the lives of my officials, as well as those of the police and media, were at stake. I was forced to prioritize my safety over the legality” he said.
Under these extreme circumstances, he declared Ebi Bright as the MP-elect, even though the collation of results was not complete.
He explained that results from two polling stations had not been collated yet, and had these results been included, the NPP candidate for the area, Charles Forson, would have won by a margin of 55 votes.
“There are, however, two outstanding polling station results, which, when added to the collated results, would change the outcome of the election. It would make the NPP candidate, Charles Forson, the winner by a margin of 55 votes,” he revealed.
As a result, Mr Asante has called on the EC chairperson to “nullify the result declaration.”
After Saturday’s polls in the area, Ebi Bright secured 18,539 votes, while NPP’s Forson received 18,421 votes.
Mr Asante based his request on the fact that he was not the returning officer for the constituency – that role belonged to one Kwasi Brobbey.
Therefore, he argued that the declaration he made under duress was illegal, as it was not made by the authorized returning officer.
The Electoral Commission chairperson, Jean Mensa, has confirmed receipt of the letter to Myjoyonline.com.
