Disagreements over alleged two unaccompanied ballot boxes in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the Bawku Central Constituency may delay the announcement of the results, as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has raised concerns on the authenticity of those boxes.
Two ballot boxes were found sitting in a bus in front of the Bawku Community Centre, which serves as a collation Centre and commandeered by the Electoral Commission (EC) to help in carting ballot materials and EC officials to and from polling stations during voting.
The boxes, which the NPP claims were not accompanied by a Presiding Officer, Party Agents and officially assigned security personnel, raised suspicion from some constituency executives who insisted that the boxes should not be added to those already parked at the collation centre.
It took a combined force of the Police and Military personnel to try to mediate to resolve the problem amicably.
The parties involved, consequently, agreed to produce the statements of poll signed by the agents to compare and come out with a clear cut decision.
The NPP candidate, Madam Gabiana Abugre Gbanwa, who spoke to the media, stated that she strongly suspected foul play from the EC and the NDC purposely to twist the results in favour of her opponent.
She insisted that it was unlawful per the Electoral Laws for a Presiding Officer to sleep over a statement of poll only to surface with it the next morning and send ahead his ballot boxes unaccompanied.
Therefore, she said, she was not ready to accept results from that polling station to be added to the other ones.
The Bawku Municipal Director of Elections, Mr Kofi Asante Owusu, and some top security officers, arranged for all the parties in the dispute to work together to find a lasting solution to the problem, which had the potential to delay the announcement of the results and bring chaos.
Even though the parties are making efforts to find amicable settlement, counting of votes is still underway.
Some of the security personnel complained about petty election complaints and said they wanted the matter resolved so that they could join their families.
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