Patrick Boamah, the NPP parliamentary candidate and Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, has announced his intention to contest the results of the Okaikwei Central constituency in court.
This comes after Abdulai Abu Baba Abubakar Sadiq, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for Okaikwei Central, was declared the Member of Parliament-elect for the constituency following hours of contention over the results at the regional collation centre.
While early results initially suggested that Boamah had won the constituency, protests from the NDC prompted the Electoral Commission (EC) to revisit the figures. Following a review, the EC officially declared Baba Sadiq as the winner with 15,383 votes, while Boamah had 14,949 votes. The declaration came after the NDC called for the EC to use two-thirds of the available polling station results to announce the results for Okaikwei Central.
Addressing journalists in Accra later on Monday December 9, Boamah expressed his concerns over the irregularities he observed during the electoral process.
“I deem it very irregular, it is not in accordance with any electoral rule in this country that a party to the election will come and say that I don’t agree with the figures from the EC and then because we don’t agree with you take out the number of polling stations that they don’t agree with you, and go ahead and make a declaration under duress,” Boamah stated.
He highlighted the incident where the returning officer was allegedly manhandled within the conference room of the Electoral Commission (EC).
“Look at the way the returning officer was manhandled within the conference room of the EC. They took over the conference room, manhandled him, coerced him to make a declaration which was live on national television,” he added.
Boamah emphasised that the NPP does not want to be associated with violence but is determined to seek justice through the appropriate legal channels.
“We don’t want to be associated with violence, but we want to take this matter up at the appropriate forum because what happened is very alien to any electoral process that I have been a party to in this country,” he affirmed.
