The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced the suspension of the re-collation exercise for the parliamentary results in the Dome Kwabenya and Okaikwei North constituencies due to significant hurdles in the collation process.

On Saturday, December 21, 2024, the Electoral Commission convened a collation exercise following a High Court ruling granting a mandamus to compel the commission to re-collate the results of nine constituencies declared after the December 7 election.

Despite persistent objections by the National Democratic Congress, the EC on Saturday re-collated results for seven out of the nine constituencies.

Dome Kwabenya

The re-collation for Dome Kwabenya was thwarted by the absence of essential pink sheets from three polling stations.

These documents, which are crucial for verifying votes, are only available in digital form, and there have been unsuccessful attempts to convert them back to hard copies.

Both major political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have failed to provide the missing physical records.

The NPP has attributed this lack to violent disruptions during the initial collation, alleging that their agents were assaulted and critical documents were destroyed or seized amidst the chaos.

Okaikwei North

In Okaikwei North, the situation is similarly chaotic with 31 out of 62 expected pink sheets unaccounted for.

This significant shortfall has paralyzed the EC's ability to proceed with the re-collation, as the results cannot be verified without these key documents.

EC’s next steps

Given these complications, the EC has decided to pause the re-collation process in these constituencies. The commission's senior management is scheduled to convene to discuss and decide on the next steps to address these electoral disputes.

Seven Constituencies declared

While Dome Kwabenya and Okaikwei North face these ongoing issues, the EC has managed to declare results in seven other constituencies following the High Court's directive for re-collation in nine areas. All seven constituencies declared so far have resulted in wins for the NPP:

• Obuasi East (Ashanti Region): Patrick Boakye-Yiadom retained his seat.

• Nsawam-Adoagyiri (Eastern Region): Frank Annoh-Dompreh emerged victorious.

• Tema Central (Greater Accra Region): Charles Forson narrowly won.

• Ahafo Ano South West: Elvis Osei Dapaah won.

• Ahafo Ano North (Ashanti Region): Nana Agyemang Prempeh was successful.

• Okaikwei Central (Greater Accra Region): Patrick Yaw Boamah retained his seat.

• Techiman South (Bono East Region): Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah was declared the winner.

Composition of the next Parliament as the results stand

With the declaration of seven out of the nine outstanding constituencies, the composition of the parliamentary results as declared by the Electoral Commission is as follows:

• NPP (New Patriotic Party): 89 seats

• NDC (National Democratic Congress): 181 seats

• Independents: 4 seats

This leaves 2 seats still pending from Dome Kwabenya and Ablekuma North, bringing the total number of seats declared to 274 out of 276 in the House.