“If this court does not make the appropriate orders for the EC to go and finish its work in the presence of the very limited number of persons outlined in the Constitutional Instrument (C.I 127) a dangerous precedent for our democracy will be set whereby all manner of thugs, hoodlums, will evade constituency collation centres and even without the appropriate forms prescribed in the C.I. for the election raise the hand of somebody holding an A4 sheet and saying that it is done,” he said.

Earlier, lawyers for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have firmed up their argument that the collation of the results in the Tema Central Constituency could not be completed due alleged intimidation with a claim that the person who declared the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) Ebi Bright was not the returning officer of the EC. 

Moving the mandamus application at the General Jurisdiction of the High Court in Accra on Wednesday (Jan 1, 2025), Gary Nimako Marfo pointed the court to a video which was played in open court. 

He alleged that the person seen holding an A4 sheet in the video on the day of the said purported declaration was one Mr John Nunoo and not the EC’s returning officer, Mr Kwesi Brobbey. 

As a result, he is asking the court to compel the EC to complete the collation process and declare who won the election for that constituency.

Meanwhile, in the video that was played in open court to support the NPP’s argument, the Deputy National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale, was heard saying, “Our issue is not with the police, our issue is with the EC Officer. We will bring him out to declare Ebi Bright, whether he likes it or not he will declare the results here and if the NPP does not like it, they can go to court”.

Mr Marfo said, “If the position canvassed in the affidavit in opposition of the interested parties is made to stand it will be a very dangerous recipe in this country. Because all what it will mean is that without the full complement of votes from all polling stations, anybody at all can just mass up at the collation centre to purport to make a declaration, which duty rest with authorised and determined officers of the EC to be done in a prescribed manner according to law." 

“Collation without incorporating the entire polling station votes, can never be called collation in the eyes of the law but what it seeks to do is that persons who have gone to cast their ballot are being disenfranchised,” he said.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page to read more updates. It is now the turn of the NDC to argue in opposition to the application

The NDC lawyer, Godwin Tameklo is currently on his feet opposing the mandamus application.