Charles Forson of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been declared the winner of the Tema Central parliamentary seat, following a tense and chaotic re-collation process.

The re-collation had briefly stalled after the Returning Officer refused to proceed without the presence of representatives from all political parties. This came after a demand from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Ebi Bright, for a complete re-collation of votes from all polling stations in accordance with a court order.

Bright insisted that the Electoral Commission (EC) start the process anew, rather than continue from where it had previously left off. The situation escalated with Bright, alongside South Dayi MP Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, expressing frustration over the EC’s refusal to carry out a full re-collation. Both NDC representatives eventually walked out of the collation center, leading to a temporary halt in the process.

Heightened security was seen at the EC’s Greater Accra regional office as tensions mounted.

In another development, the re-collation of results for the Obuasi East constituency confirmed Patrick Boakye Yiadom of the NPP as the winner by a narrow margin of 19 votes. Yiadom garnered 18,558 votes, narrowly defeating his closest rival, Samuel Aboagye of the NDC, who secured 18,539 votes. Independent candidate Adjei Owusu Afriyie trailed with 424 votes.

This re-collation process forms part of efforts to resolve disputes over procedural irregularities in nine constituencies across the country.

Source:TheDotNews