February 11, 2025

EC to Conduct Re-run of Parliamentary Election at One Polling Station in Dome Kwabenya

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Dr. Serebour Quaicoe

The Electoral Commission (EC) has decided to re-run the parliamentary election at a single polling station in the Dome Kwabenya constituency, located in the Greater Accra Region. This decision comes after a dispute over the declaration of results at the Abokobi Women’s Development Training Centre polling station. The issue arose when the results from this station were submitted using an incorrect declaration form—one intended for training presiding officers rather than the official pink sheet used for the official declaration of results. This led to the rejection of the results from that particular polling station due to irregularity.

The events surrounding the disruption began on December 7, 2024, when polls closed in the Dome Kwabenya constituency. The collation of parliamentary results was interrupted, and some physical documents, including declaration forms (commonly referred to as pink sheets), were destroyed in the process. Dome Kwabenya has 367 polling stations, and during a subsequent meeting to resolve the issues, it was discovered that the declaration forms from three of the polling stations were missing. Fortunately, some candidates had scanned soft copies of the forms before the disruption, which allowed the EC to retrieve the results from these stations.

As the results from the three polling stations were reviewed, it was found that one of the polling stations, the Abokobi Women’s Development Training Centre, had mistakenly used a training declaration form instead of the valid pink sheet. This error led to the rejection of the results from this particular station. However, the results from the other two polling stations were successfully validated. When these results were added to the overall tally, it was revealed that Elikplim Akurugu, the parliamentary candidate from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was leading by a margin of 165 votes over his main opponent, Mike Oquaye Jnr. of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The Abokobi Women’s Development Training Centre, the affected polling station, has a voter population of approximately 665. The EC explained that if all the votes from this station were allocated to the NPP candidate, it could potentially alter the overall results, given the existing 165-vote difference between the two leading candidates. As a result, the EC determined that a re-run of the election at this particular polling station was necessary to ensure an accurate and fair result for the Dome Kwabenya constituency.

Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, the Director of Training at the EC, stated that the commission would soon meet to decide on the date for the re-run of the election. He emphasized that while the results from 367 polling stations had been collated, the inclusion of results from the remaining three polling stations—including the one with the incorrect declaration—necessitated a re-run to finalize the outcome. Dr. Quaicoe further assured the public that the re-run would take place before the official inauguration of Members of Parliament.

“The report from the returning officers indicated that they had completed collating results from 367 polling stations. They later received results from the remaining three, but one was rejected because it was declared on the wrong sheet, a training sheet, which is not valid for official purposes,” Dr. Quaicoe explained. “Upon adding the valid results from the other two polling stations to the existing tally, the margin between the two leading candidates narrowed to just 165 votes. The rejected polling station, Abokobi Women’s Development Centre, could change the outcome if all those votes were allocated to the second-place candidate.”

Meanwhile, the NDC has expressed its opposition to the decision to re-run the election at the affected polling station. The party insists that their candidate, Elikplim Akurugu, has already won the election by a clear margin. Rashid Tanko-Computer, the Deputy Director of Elections and IT at the NDC, has challenged the EC’s calculations, arguing that the commission made errors in its arithmetic. Tanko-Computer stated that the NDC would conduct its own recalculation and prove that their candidate had won, disputing the EC’s margin of 165 votes.

“The EC has a problem with their arithmetic. We have been doing our own calculation, and we will bring it back to them. Elikplim has won,” Tanko-Computer asserted. He further criticized the EC’s handling of previous calculations, saying, “It is their own document. You remember when we did the registration; they were doing the wrong calculations. We will use simple Excel sheets and show that Elikplim has won.”

The NDC’s response reflects their frustration with the EC’s handling of the results and their firm belief that their candidate emerged victorious in the election. With both sides awaiting a resolution, the EC’s decision to re-run the election at the Abokobi Women’s Development Training Centre polling station remains a significant development in the ongoing election process for the Dome Kwabenya constituency.

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