The People’s National Convention (PNC) suspects foul play in the just ended by-election held in Talensi in the Upper East Region.
According to PNC, most of their strongholds recorded high number of rejected ballots as compared to other areas.
The NDC’s candidate, B.T. Baba won the majority votes to become the MP for Talensi on Tuesday.
[contextly_sidebar id=”CdHOpUnbYI1a3PDWOufqsruFBbQLhqTA”]Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) beat the PNC with only nine (9) votes.
General Secretary of the PNC, Bernard Mornah said they suspect were cheated because the Electoral Commission refused to recount the ballots papers in most of the places they demanded it.
“Anywhere the PNC won election; the number of rejected ballots was on the high. In Sambalugu polling station, where we decided that they should do a recount, of the seven votes that were reclaimed as valid, one went to NDC; two went to NPP and as many as four came to the PNC increasing our votes from 70 to 80 in an area we won,” he said.
“The refusal of the Electoral Commission to recount the votes should tell you that they did something untoward,” lamented Bernard Mornah.
He also claimed that the NPP couldn’t have performed better than the PNC because they started campaigning in Talensi about six months ago.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, a livid Bernard Mornah insisted that they will forward their grievances to their legal team, adding that if need be that they petition the Supreme Court, they won’t hesitate on that.
He further explained that in the “Yamsuk polling centre where our constituency chairman acted as our party agent, it was reported that as many as ten of the rejected ballots were valid votes for the PNC but they ignored his protest, and bundled everything even after he refused to sign and brought it to the collation centre.”
“Rejected ballots alone was 882. If you add the other five political parties beyond the PNC, NPP and NDC, you will get 452. That tells you that this rejected itself must be checked. Even if we are not winning, credit us with the votes that we deserve. The PNC is likely to get an average of 50% of the rejected ballots,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana