Election 2020: Confusion over Techiman South parliamentary results

Following the declaration of the December 7 parliamentary results, the main constituency that has come under contention is the Techiman South Constituency.

There, the NDC avers that their candidate Christopher Beyere Baasongti won and not the NPP’s candidate Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah.

The Techiman South Constituency election prior to its declaration was marred by violence - two individuals lost their lives in a scuffle between the NDC, NPP and some security agents.

The Minority Leader at a press conference on Tuesday, December 22, stated that the Akufo-Addo administration was working to “deny the NDC a parliamentary majority”.

Haruna Iddrisu said per the data available to the Minority, the NDC secured 50,306 votes whilst the NPP secured 50,013. There were 919 rejected ballots. This makes the NDC the legitimate winner of the Techiman South parliamentary seat.

With the 293-vote margin, Christopher Beyere Baasongti must become the MP-elect, the Minority is contending.

Haruna Iddrisu then demanded, “We want to see the summary of the poll. But as to what we will do, leave it to us.”

The NDC candidate himself, Christopher Beyere Baasongti, in an interview with Joy FM on Monday, December 21, monitored by GhanaWeb: "For the NDC we had 50,420 votes and the NPP had 49,825 votes.”

These figures from both the Minority and the candidate who contested on the ticket of the NDC are different from each other, and from that of the Electoral Commission.

The EC has stated that the NPP’s candidate Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah won with 49,682 votes representing 50.2 per cent of the total valid vote cast, whilst the NDC’s candidate Christopher Beyere Baasongti had 49,205 votes representing 49.8 per cent of the total valid votes cast.

On this basis, the NPP’s candidate was declared the MP-elect for Techiman South.

However, doubts remain about when and where the EC declared these figures.

Meanwhile, the EC is yet to publicly publish the parliamentary results for the constituency on its website, adding to the confusion. Asking for re-collation of the results as the NDC is doing is enshrined in CI 127 which governs the 2020 elections, but the EC has flatly refused to respond to that request.

The NDC caucus in parliament have in consequence threatened to boycott the inauguration of President Akufo-Addo for a second term if a re-collation of the parliamentary results of Techiman South is not done.