Court dismisses NPP's case in Sene West, orders EC to continue with process

The Wenchi High Court has today December 17, 2020, dismissed the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) case to have Sene West results annulled.

The court fined NPP GHC 14,000 for wasting its time.

The court also ordered the Electoral Commission to go and continue with the process and declare the winner of the seat.

There is however chaos because the NPP says they are ready for the Tato battor Polling station B ballot box to be opened and counted but the NDC say they are not ready.

READ ALSO: 3 months jail term for Sene West ballot box snatcher not enough - Dr Quaicoe

The NDC says the court was not specific as to whether the ballots should be counted and they will not allow because the said ballot box has been tampered with.

This has led to a bit of chaos but armed policemen are at the police headquarters in Techiman to calm the situation.

The Sene West Constituency’s Tato battor Polling station B ballot box is yet to be counted after one Christian Nukpeta snatched the ballot box when the election results were being counted.

Although Christian Nukpeta was arrested immediately, the parties involved noticed that the seal of the ballot box belonging to the NPP had been removed leaving that of the Electoral Commission and NDC.

As a result, Lawyers for the NPP's Sene West parliamentary candidate, Joseph Markay Kuma, immediately sought an injunction from the court to stop the EC from counting the ballot papers in the box.

Later, Lawyers for Joseph Markay Kuma withdrew their motion of injunction on the declaration of the results as filed in their petition.

The ballot box was then locked up in the Techiman Police Headquarters.

The Electoral Commission has issued a statement on the number of parliamentary seats secured by the 2 main political parties in the just-ended general elections.

According to the statement, out of the total number of 275 constituencies, the NPP has won 137 parliamentary seats, the NDC has 136 and Independent Candidate Lawyer Andrew Asiamah Asamoah has 1 seat. This brings the total number of seats declared so far to 274.

The only outstanding seat yet to be declared by the EC is that of the Sene West constituency in the Bono East region.

The NDC secured its highest number of seats in the Greater Accra Region by gaining 20 constituencies, whilst the NPP’s stronghold, Ashanti Region gave the party 42 seats.

At least, 108 out of the 275 Members of the 7th Parliament will not return to the house in the 8th Parliament, either because they lost the primaries in their parties or are retiring or lost the seat in the December 7 elections.

That means about 39.20% of all the 275 MPs are not returning to the house.