The High Court has directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to collate and declare results from 147 outstanding polling stations in the Techiman South constituency by January 6, 2025.
The court issued this order following concerns that the initial declaration of results was made without including votes from all polling stations.
Background to the Techiman South dispute
The Techiman South constituency has 282 polling stations.
However, the EC only collated results from 135 polling stations before declaring Adjei-Mensah Korsah of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the winner. According to the court’s findings, this partial collation left out results from 147 polling stations, which could significantly impact the outcome.
The court heard that Chris Beyere, the opposition candidate from the National Democratic Congress (NDC), received 17,874 votes, while Adjei-Mensah Korsah was credited with 25,933 votes from the collated polling stations.
The NDC argued that the EC’s failure to collate all results violated electoral laws and undermined the integrity of the election.
Key findings of the court
The court determined that the results of all polling stations were not collated, and a declaration was made prematurely.
A demand for a complete collation was made on December 13, 2024, but the EC failed to act on it. This inaction by the EC was interpreted by the court as a refusal to perform its statutory duty.
During the hearing, the court was informed that the returning officer responsible for declaring the results had been forced to lift the hand of Adjei-Mensah Korsah during the declaration process, raising further questions about the legitimacy of the declaration.
The court ruled that the remaining 147 polling stations must be collated and declared by the returning officer on or before January 6, 2025
