Joe Ghartey to face court over alleged fraudulent electoral victory

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hon Joe Ghartey is standing on the brinks of electoral dispute as his return to Parliament faces legal action over alleged massive electoral fraud.

The MP for Essikado Ketan had earlier been reported to have lost the seat to NDC's Grace Ayensu Danquah, but things took a dramatic turn at the 11th hour as the a 3 person contest turned to six on a different ballot paper to claim victory for the long-time Parliamentarian.

Although three persons contested in the elections, the EC published an artwork on its website with the result of six candidates. It, however, deleted it later and uploaded a different one.

In the process of fighting back to see a clean system, it has been detected that the MP through the help of the Electoral Commission(EC) won the seat through the back door as two separate set of ballot papers were used in the the election.

Three people contested the seat but a second paper used in the fraudulent declaration saw faces of six people on the different ballot sheet.

This has dented the image of the EC as many pro-opposition Facebook groups including NDC TV and some commentators are sharing images to claim that the Commission published results for six parliamentary candidates for the Essikado-Ketan seat when in fact, only three people contested for the seat.

In her reaction to the suspected fraud denied her first chance in Parliament, Dr Grace Ayensu has threatened to go to court to seek redress.

She also accused the EC officials of swapping figures in the NPP's favour, confirming that the Electoral Commission indeed shared an Essikado-Ketan parliamentary results document with results for six supposed candidates although only three people contested in that election.