Ebi Bright, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Tema Central, has filed a petition at the High Court, challenging the election of Charles Forson as Member of Parliament for the constituency.
In her petition, Bright argues that the results, which led to Forson being declared the winner, do not accurately reflect the outcome of the election. She specifically points to three polling stations where, according to her, there were significant irregularities in the results.
Bright claims that the original pink sheets for the three contested polling stations, held by the Electoral Commission (EC), contained the signatures and names of the presiding officers. However, the duplicates provided to the NDC did not feature these same signatures and names. She also alleges discrepancies in the total number of votes reported on the original pink sheets, which do not align with the final count of valid and total votes.
Based on these irregularities, Bright has requested that the court annul the results from the three disputed polling stations and overturn Forson’s election as MP. Alternatively, she is asking for a re-run of the election in these specific stations.
This legal challenge follows an earlier ruling by an Accra High Court on January 4, which ordered the EC to complete the collation of results from two outstanding polling stations in the Tema Central constituency. The court had intervened after mandamus applications were filed by candidates from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), arguing that the EC had failed to fulfil its legal duties.
In response, the court emphasised that the EC must act impartially and in accordance with the law. Following the completion of the results collation, Forson was confirmed as the winner, having received 18,870 votes, narrowly defeating Ebi Bright, who secured 18,815 votes. Independent candidate Frederick Aniagyei garnered 209 votes.
The total number of valid votes cast was 37,894, with 144 rejected ballots, bringing the overall total votes to 38,038.
Source:TheDotNews