THE DILEMMA IN KETU NORTH NDC; What the Party missed, what the law says and the lessons

There have been lots of controversies since Saturday night after NDC parliamentary primaries at Ketu North Constituency after two major contenders; Edem Agbana and John Kwabla Adanu pulled a tie of 358 votes each after Edem Agbana was initially tipped to be elected for gunning 360 votes. The argument over whether there should be a run-off or what many especially Edem himself described to be illegal machinations to deprive of his win and claims he won the primaries. Now let us analyse what the party missed and what the laws say about situations like
this, as well as the lessons.

Firstly; The NDC party guidelines that governed the parliamentary primaries did not make any provision about a situation where there’s a tie, there should be a run-off. But Article 44 (d and e) of the 1992 NDC party constitution and section 10 parts VI and VIII of presidential primary guidelines, stated clearly that if there’s a tie, a second ballot shall be held between the two leading candidates, even a repeated run-off until a winner is determined.
A situation which I personally find unfortunate as if the party did not envisage any of this to happen during the parliamentary primaries. This is a major error I find in the party laws anyway.

BUT HOW DID WE GET HERE ?
According to Edem Agbana himself, He left the polling station together with his team before the recount was called therefore he is challenging the legality of those recounts. (I believe in a jubilation mood after realising the 360 votes which puts him in a comfortable lead; a normal situation for any candidate in any elections)

Now, Section ‘J’ part 6 of NDC parliamentary primaries guidelines stated clearly that counting of ballots shall be done in the presence of agents and to be announced immediately. Same agents must be present to sign declaration sheets after all is over.
So to me, the absence of a candidate at a polling centre does not invalidate declared results or what happens since that candidate has his/her agents or counting agents present.

Besides, the presiding officer never declared Edem Agbana as winner/MP elect after realising the 360 votes because simple logic and the law states that; the presiding officer can only declare a winner after all ballots have been counted for all contesting candidates even if any candidate gets more ballots by calculations earlier, the winner can only be declared after the last ballot is counted for the last candidate.

My investigations revealed that; the recount was called for by John Adanu’s agent in a handwritten petition and it was done for his candidate (Adanu) which the Electoral officer proceeded to count for other candidates including Edem Agbana and it was at this point that Edem’s agents asked the electoral officer to check if all ballot papers are stamped, it was this action that resulted into the discovery that there are three unstamped ballot papers reducing their votes each. (Edem from 360 to 358, Adanu from 359 to 358) as seen on the declaration sheet
below.

MY VERDICTS
● If Edem’s agent had not drawn the attention of electoral officials to check stamping, the results would still be the same, making Edem the winner.
● According to regulation 38 of Public Elections Regulations (CI 15), and “Representation of Peoples Act (2006)” “A ballot paper which has not been duly stamped by an electoral officer shall be rejected as invalid and not counted” But
my question is; who is to be blamed for unstamped/unmarked ballot papers ?

THE SOLUTIONS
Section 10 (ii) of Presidential primaries guidelines, Sections M (2) of parliamentary primaries guidelines stated that; since it is the Electoral Commission that is supervising the election, all rules governing conduct of national elections shall apply.

If that is the case, all regulations governing elections in Ghana provides for a second ballot/run-off to be held between two candidates who obtains equal number of votes or percentage in 21 days of first ballot. It is on this background that the EC presiding officer declared a tie and called for a re-run, despite efforts by Edem’s agents to make him declare the earlier results instead.

Also, article 50 of the same NDC constitution talks of residual powers of National Executives committee (NEC) to provide solutions for any matter which has no provisions in their constitution. In view of this, since the constitution and parliamentary primary guidelines did not provide for such, NEC, FEC and even council of elders now have the power to determine what happens next which cannot be far from what the law says; which is a run-off

THE LESSONS
● As candidates, agents, campaign teams and supporters, we must endure how to stay awake at polling centres till the last ballot is counted and declared by EC presiding officers. A situation which should be taken seriously by all in the upcoming general elections.
● The NDC party should quickly put in plans to amend their constitution and guidelines to provide for what happens whenever there is a tie during parliamentary primaries, to avoid this anomalies
● The party earlier passed a resolution to use their own Constituency Electoral Committee (CEC) and elections directorate to run this election should EC failed to avail themselves due to earlier court issues, a move I found very dangerous and can erupt legal confusions…now I ask; if this Ketu North elections was to be held without Electoral Commission, imagine the kind of confusion, legal tussle that would have engulfed at the centre till
now.
● Electoral commission always comes with some kind of neutrality, trust and respect during this internal political party elections, so next time leadership of political parties should be careful and continue to engage them no matter what may.

CONCLUSION
➢ So far as the presiding officer declared the outcome officially to be a tie, there will only be a run-off in 21 days time per our national electoral laws.
➢ Otherwise, any aggrieved candidate can invoke section ‘N’ parts 2 and 3 of parliamentary guidelines by petitioning CEC and electoral commission officials.
➢ The residual powers decisions of NEC, FEC and Council of elders all should be in concordant with the laws, interest of the delegates in Ketu North and the NDC party as whole