EC recommends re-run of Yendi NPP primary but party yet to decide

The Electoral Commission (EC) has written to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) recommending for the re-run of the parliamentary primary it supervised in Yendi because the poll was inconclusive, a source has told The Chronicle.

The paper has sighted a copy of the said report the EC sent to the leadership of the NPP at the request of the latter, informing them of a disruption that prevented them from concluding their work and subsequent declaration of the winner.

The EC, in the letter dated February 19, 2024 and signed by Samuel Tettey, Deputy Chairman, Operations for the chairperson, recommended a re-run due to the disruption during the counting.

“It is the view of the Commission that the election [in Yendi] be re-run since the counting was disrupted, thereby rendering the election inconclusive,” the EC wrote to the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Koduah Frimpong.

However, over a month since the EC submitted a report on the incident to the party, the latter is yet to take a decisive step to resolve the impasse, including conducting a re-run, as recommended by the EC.

Though The Chronicle is aware of the setting up of a three-member committee to resolve the matter, the paper is also informed that the candidates have not been invited for questioning.

EC REPORT

In the report submitted by the EC, the Commission said the election at Yendi commenced at     7:00 a.m. and closed at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 27, 2024 with Farouk Aliu Mahama and Abibata Shanni Mahama as the two contenders.

The report said the election was supervised by the district electoral officer and assisted by five other officials of the EC.

The total number of voters on the register was 794, out of which 785 voted, with one rejected ballot.

The report said that after sorting was conducted, Abibata Shanni Mahama’s ballots were handed over to one of the polling assistants for safekeeping and those of Farouk were then counted in the full glare of the public.

The EC told the NPP leadership that, in the process of counting, a number of persons accused the polling assistant holding Abibata Mahama’s ballots of trying to invalidate the ballots in his custody with the ink pad in his pocket.

The people pounced on the polling assistant and beat him and the other election officials, according to the EC account.

“This disrupted the counting process and brought counting to an abrupt end,” the report continued.

“The Presiding Officer indicated in his report to the Commission that at the time of the disruption, he had counted 296 of the ballots belonging to Honourable Farouk Aliu Mahama. However, a video forwarded to the EC revealed that the number of votes counted, prior to the disruption, amounted to 226.

“The Yendi Constituency Parliamentary election was, therefore, inconclusive due to the fact that the counting process was disrupted. As a result, the Presiding Officer could not declare the winner of the election,” the EC told the party in its report.

DISCLAIMER

The EC had earlier, in a statement issued on January 29, 2024 distanced itself from the purported declaration of the results of the Yendi polls.

The EC told the general public that it has “not declared results for the Yendi constituency in the just-ended NPP parliamentary elections,” explaining that the counting was disrupted.

The statement added that “unfortunately, the destruction of 489 ballots, which remained to be counted, made it impossible for the Presiding Officer to complete the collation and declare the results. The Commission, therefore, disassociates itself from the declaration.”

POLICE REPORT

The national office of NPP requested a report from the Ghana Police Service on the incident, which was submitted on February 19, 2024. It was signed by Chief Superintendent Kingsley Aboagye on the directive of the Inspector General of Police.

The Police narrated that the, otherwise, peaceful voting in the Yendi NPP parliamentary primary turned violent when suspect Mutala Shanni, brother to Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama, disrupted the counting process and assaulted two EC officials, alleging that they had spoilt ballot papers belonging to her sister.

The police said the suspect further led thugs to destroy ballots and the act degenerated into a chaotic scene between supporters of both aspirants, and a confrontation with the police.

However, the police said it managed to rescue the EC officers and retrieved some ballot papers in their possession, but the incumbent MP, Farouk Mahama, led his supporters to “besiege the police bus, held the officers hostage and threatened to attack them or set the bus ablaze.”

However, police and military reinforcements managed to disperse the crowd, paving the way for a safe exit for the officers.

But the “aggrieved aspirant,” Farouk Mahama, in the company of some NPP executives, including the regional chairman and the third national vice chairman, met with the regional Commander and his team.

The police report said the executives demanded that the ballot papers be counted at the police station and the results declared. They also demanded that the two EC officials in police custody continued the counting process and conclude the outcome, as they believed Farouk Mahama was about to win the election.

The EC officials, the police reported, declined to continue the election process at the police station.

However, the party executive who accompanied the incumbent MP to the police station chose to address the media in front of the Yendi Police Division.

“They declared Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama elected as NPP parliamentary candidate for Yendi constituency,” the police report said.

STATEMENTS

In his statement, Bentil Nana Kwabena Deih, a Procurement officer with the Northern Regional EC, Tamale, told the police that he was assigned the role of an inker in charge of indelible ink. According to his statement, due to the nature of his work, his hands were soiled with dry ink that he thought could not soil any paper.

He said he held the ballot papers of Hajia Abibata Mahama waiting for counting, after those of Farouk had been counted by Samson Anaba.

He said that while waiting, his phone rang and he reached into his pocket to remove and check on the caller. But suspect Mutala Shanni jumped into the EC counting perimeter and accused him of using an ink pad to soil the ballot papers in his possession.

The police report said Mutala put his hands into Bentil’s EC jacket and found a cover of an ink thumbprint pad. The suspect started assaulting him, upon which he sustained an injury to his eye, lost his GH600 and wrist watch.

His colleague, Mikare Banonotara, a district electoral officer, according to the police report, corroborated the statement Bentil gave and identified Mutala as the person who disrupted the process.

“She alleged that the NPP executives put pressure on her to declare Hon. Farouk Aliu Mahama winner, but she declined,” the report added.

Mutale Shanni, according to the police, was brought to the police station accompanied by her sister, Hajia Abibata.

According to the report, Mutala told the police in his statement that during the counting, he observed Bentil Deih putting his hand into the EC jacket he was wearing and using ink to soil and spoil his sister’s ballot papers in his possession.

Mutala told the police that while the EC officer, Bentil, kept soiling the ballot papers, he pressed them together to make the heap appear smaller in the eyes of the public.

As such, he went straight and confronted the officer and collected the jacket, and upon examination, he found an ink pad, which he showed to the public and thereafter left the scene.

The police report said the ballot papers retrieved from Bentil Nana Kwabena Deih, the EC officer, together with other ballot papers recovered at the scene, were sealed in a ballot box by EC officer Edward Tettey, in the presence of other persons, and the same kept in police armoury for further investigation.

The report said CITI TV reporter, Mohammed Alabira, in his statement, told the police that he was assaulted by the incumbent MP, Farouk Mahama and his personal bodyguard when he attempted to interview him.

He told the police that his mobile phone was seized from him by the two, before the police rescued him.

According to the report, Farouk Mahama was being invited through the Speaker of Parliament to assist in investigations.

The police said it was seeking a court order to open the sealed ballot box to examine the ballot papers to establish whether or not they were tampered with by the EC officer, Bentil Deih.

PETITION

Meanwhile, the second candidate, Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama Zakariah, on January 28, 2024 petitioned the National Headquarters of the NPP over the conduct of the primary in the Yendi constituency.

On February 23, 2024 she sent a reminder to the headquarters regarding the same issue, in which he indicated that a meeting was held by the National Executive Council on February 19, 2024 where reports of the Ghana Police Service and the EC addressed to the General Secretary concerning the matter were read.

She expressed concern over the failure of the meeting to either read her earlier petition or show the videos and pictorial evidence she attached to her petition. But she raised the same concerns in her reminder for them to be addressed.

Concluding the letter, she emphasised the urgency and importance of addressing the concerns raised, as it was crucial that “we strive for clarity and accuracy in the aftermath of the Yendi election, ensuring that misrepresentations are corrected and that the truth prevails.”

Three days later, on February 26, 2024 she petitioned the Inspector General of Police over the latter’s report to the party, which sought  to bring to the police’s attention “some inaccuracies and misrepresentations captured in the recent report sent to the NPP.”

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