Elections in Techiman South is turning out to be the most important single Parliamentary election in Ghana since 1993 and maybe I should do a thread to explain why

On 7th Dec 2020, Ghana went to the polls to elect a President and 275 members of Parliament
After 6 days of elections, counting and declaration, so many issues have arisen with the biggest one being the opposition party NDC rejecting the results that gave incumbent NPP a win

The opposition leader John Mahama has been advised to go to court which he said was one of the options his party was considering after they carefully audit all results from polling stations in their possession
The biggest issue now is who wins majority in Parliament

There are 275 constituencies and the EC has said NPP has 137, NDC 136, an Independent candidate 1 and one constituency Sene West is outstanding because someone snatched a ballot box but he was caught and has been jailed 3 months
The NDC is likely to win that to get 137

To have majority in Ghana’s Parliament, you will need 138 and with both parties getting 137, the independent candidate will decide where he will align to give that party a majority
He was a member of the NPP who was sacked from the party and Parliament after he went independent

He was MP for Fomena and had publicly said he will win the seat and align with the NPP in parliament
So that will mean the NPP will have 138 against 137 and they will have majority to put forward a name for Speaker and their members head all committees of Parliament

The NDC however believes they won majority of 140 but the incumbent has used crude means to change results in Tarkwa Nsuaem, Sefwi Wiawso and Techiman South
It has never happened in this 4th republic that a President’s party doesn’t have majority in parliament

On election night, the NDC came out around 12:45am to say they had won majority seats in Parliament by their internal collation and had flipped over 36 seats at that moment
One of those wins included Abura Aseibu Kwamankese in the Central region

The NPP rebutted hours later and said they had a working majority and said the NDC were engaged in lies because they added Abura Aseibu Kwamankese to their wins but the NPP candidate had won by 174 and the NPP was right about this and NDC was wrong bcos their candidate conceded

However the NPP also said they had won 4 out of the 7 seats in Savannah but this turned out to be a lie after the EC said the NPP won 3 whilst the NDC won 4

So we move to why Techiman South is turning out to be the single most important election under the 4th republic and reason there is so much tension and violence that has led to loss of 3 lives
Techiman South is in the Bono East region and a very hot political area

Of the 3 seats the NDC believe they won but taken from them, this is the one they think they can easily challenge and win and reason they have concentrated all their resources and arsenals there
Once they win that, the get a majority of 138 and they control Parliament

This is how the electoral system works

After close of poll, ballots are counted in the open and after all agents agree on the figures, the Presiding Officer of that Polling Station fills the Statement of poll(Pink sheet) and all agents sign
Not signing doesn’t invalidate result

An agent can only call for a recount at the Polling station and if dissatisfied after 2 counts, the agent can only petition for another recount at constituency collation center where all results from the various polling stations making up the constituency are added and declared

My understanding of the law is if you fail to ask for a recount at the polling station and don’t write to ask for recount at collation center, you can’t just get to the collation center where they’re doing addition to be asking for recount

In Techiman South, there are 265 traditional polling stations and 2 from the early voting(special voting) hence 267 statements of poll(pink sheet)
The collation center was the Bronkyempem hall and all parties were available to do this together with the Returning Officer

This is the NDC constituency Director of elections on their version of what happened
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The NPP also organized a press conference to give their side of the story

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So the EC declared the Parliamentary results for the NPP and the NDC assertion that there was no declaration isn’t true
He had a megaphone declaring and the NDC tried to stop him

In the Adom TV report in last tweet, it seems strange that the declaration was made around 3:30pm on 8th December and the Presiding officers in some polling stations had still not brought in their pink sheets so EC had to use NPP pink sheets

Also the NDC agrees they resolved those polling stations so what actually is their issue again aside the one PS they and the EC didn’t have pink sheets because the PO and NDC agent was attacked by their account

The Returning Officer has however responded saying his POs sent their pink sheets to him via WhatsApp so he cross checked with that with the parties
It’s however strange neither NDC nor NPP said anything about EC verifying their own on WhatsApp

Also he declared the Presidential results in Techiman South at 2:11pm on Wednesday 9th December so I was shocked that the EC chair didn’t add it to the final declaration saying there was dispute when there was none
EC chair declaration was between 6pm-7pm, 4 hours clear

Now to the strange figures

According to @GHOneTV who streamed declaration LIVE, CERTIFIED PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS

NPP=46,379
NDC=52,034
GUM=270
CPP=46
GFP=24
GCPP=16
APC=54
LPG=24
PNC=45
PPP=19
NDP=29
IND=46

REJECTED BALLOTS=2,209
VALID VOTER =99,436

So watch the RO give out the figures but unfortunately the sound was off for the first 6/7 candidates but the GhOne TV presenter was given those figures
Add the figures up and see if they tally with what was declared and valid votes, rejected ballots and total votes

Also check the EC declared results for the Parliamentary as given to the GhOne TV reporter who was in the collation room

So the valid votes cast in the Presidential was 98,986 so the EC saying 99,436 cannot be true and total votes of 97,227 cannot also be true
However I realized he might interchanged valid votes with total votes
I think GhOne TV must get us the declaration from start

The total valid votes for the Parliament is 98,887 but there were no other details provided by the EC or GhOne on rejected and total votes cast
However look at the NDC supposed collation. According to them the rejected votes in Parliamentary was 844

The NDC therefore went to the RO of Techiman South to give them the collation sheet he used in declaring the results so they can verify with all their 267 pink sheets
NB: They don’t have the CS because they angrily left the CC after RO declared Parliamentary for NPP

The RO told the NDC that he’s sent the collation sheet to the Bono East EC chair

The NDC went to the Bono East EC chair and he said he only has the original but I ask, why not just make a photocopy in your office and give it to them?

The NDC suspects the results declared by the EC and reason they need that collation sheet to verify with their pink sheets
Nobody can trust the EC because in Upper Denkyira West, the NPP accuses the EC of printing different pink sheets for them whilst the EC and NDC had same

I think there has to be a proper audit of all results in the 2020 elections. For the constituencies in contention, even before it goes to court for the court to rule, the EC itself has to do an audit because both the NDC and NPP are accusing the EC of being compromised