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The Electoral Officer for the Tema Metropolitan Assembly, Ofosuhene Asante Manasseh, has alleged that he was coerced and threatened to declare the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary candidate for Tema Central, Ebi Bright, as the winner of the 2024 election.
According to him, his life was threatened by some NDC executives and irate youth who stormed the collation centre, demanding that their candidate be declared the winner, despite two outstanding polling station results that could have secured the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate’s victory.
Ebi Bright was declared MP-elect after reportedly polling a total of 18,539 votes, narrowly beating Charles Forson of the NPP, who garnered 18,421 votes.
In a letter dated 10 December, addressed to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, the officer recounted the events leading to what he described as an illegal declaration.
In the process of collating the 148 polling station results, the NDC agents flagged about 12 polling station results. These were set aside for collation to continue. The flagged results were then revisited and resolved, leaving only the last three.
The three polling station results in contention were P.S. Code C231707, C231309B, and C231808. The NDC agents, along with their party leadership and supporters, insisted that we should set aside the results of the three polling stations because they were not signed by the presiding officers and declare their candidate, Ebi Bright, as the winner.
We, however, disagreed with them and insisted that since the individual results were the same, we would add them and declare the results. We added C231808, leaving two polling stations.
Asante Manasseh detailed how his life was threatened by NDC executives, including South Dayi MP Rockson Dafeamekpor, Hanna Bissiw, and Deputy Communications Officer Malik Basintale.
In fact, Rockson Dafeamekpor kept threatening me throughout the collation, quoting the law, and I disagreed with him. I kept insisting that if they had any issue, they should seek redress from the appropriate quarters after declaration. They, however, said they would not wait and seek redress in any court and demanded that I set aside the three polling station results and declare their candidate as the winner.
One of their national executives, by name Basintale, started inciting their supporters, who had massed up and invaded the collation centre, chanting and singing revolutionary songs.
He further described the terrifying ordeal:
The NDC supporters, who had gathered at the regional police command, started attacking the police in an attempt to force their way into the room where I was being kept. The police decided to dress me in police attire to disguise me and help me escape through a window at the back, but their supporters had gathered there as well. So, I was brought back into the inner room where I was being kept.
At this point, I was so terrified and traumatised that I told my colleague officer for Tema West (John Nunoo) to inform my collation officer to hand over the results to the Returning Officer (Kwasi Brobbey) for declaration without the two polling stations. However, he could not locate the Returning Officer or his deputies. So, I asked him to declare the results, and he declared Ebi Bright of the NDC the winner with 18,539 votes against 18,421 votes obtained by Charles Forson of the NPP.
The Tema Central EC Officer has since requested the Electoral Commission to annul what he describes as an “illegal declaration” for the right results to be announced.
Read the full letter below.
