NDC candidate for Wieja to go to court

THE National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary candidate for the Weija Constituency, Mr Sheriff Nii Otoo Dodoo, has protested against the results for both the presidential and parliamentary polls in the constituency and declared his intention to go to court.
According to him, his agents had verbally protested against the results of 10 out of 166 polling stations and had requested for an official form to officially make a protest but were denied it.
His agents therefore refused to sign the result which was declared yesterday at the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) collation centre in the constituency, where thousands of NDC supporters were to protest against the results.
The results, which were declared by the Returning Officer for the constituency, Mr D. D. Dankwa, indicated that in the presidential polls, the NPP had 62,444, the People's National Convention (PNC) 316, NDC 54,304, Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) 177, the Democratic People's Party (DPP) 41, the Convention People's Party (CPP) 1,414, the Reformed Patriotic Democratic (RPD) 615, and the Independent candidate, Amoafo Yeboah, had 50 votes out of 185,103.
In the Parliamentary polls, the NPP had 63,377, NDC 51,961, CPP 2,105, DFP 358, DPP 133, and 900 rejected ballot papers.
Mr Dodoo explained that the EC could not declare the results for the constituency, which, he claimed, were in his favour yesterday, till they were prompted by one of their agents that the unconfirmed results were being transported to the Amasaman District around dawn yesterday.
He said NDC agents, together with agents of the other political parties and the media present, had agreed to the EC’s officials decision to cart the ballot boxes to the New Weija Police Station for them to be recounted. This followed their initial call for recounting after the result had been declared in favour of the NPP parliamentary candidate, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, after her call for recounting.
He alleged that they were all made to believe that the boxes would be sent to the police station, but contrary to that, the boxes, they learnt, were carted by the some officials of the EC without notifying them and the media which had stayed overnight awaiting the recounting and declaration of the results.
Mr Dodoo noted that one of their agents had to vigilantly follow the boxes which were being transported in three KIA trucks and escorted by some policemen.
“According to my agent, the convoy stopped on the way to offload the ballot boxes into a tipper truck and when he enquired what they were doing with the boxes around that time, they claimed they were taking the boxes to the Amasaman District upon the advice of the Returning Officer,” he stated and alleged that his agents suspected that the tipper truck which they offloaded the boxes into before reloading them on the KIA trucks already had some boxes in them.
When the Daily Graphic team visited the Amasaman District where the boxes were alleged to have been sent to, there was heavy military and police presence on the premises, where hundreds of residents had also thronged to ascertain allegations they claim were being reported on two Accra-based radio stations.
The Daily Graphic team was hinted by the security personnel that the Returning Officer had returned to the collation centre, the New Life Preparatory School , where the results were going to be declared.
The team therefore quickly went to the collation centre where agents of all the parties were waiting eagerly for the results to be declared.
After the results were announced, which indicated that the NPP had won both the presidential and parliamentary polls, the NDC candidate alleged that they had been robbed and declared his intention to go to court for another recounting.