High Court dismisses Techiman-South election petition
The NDC candidate for the Techiman South constituency, Christopher Beyere Baasongti sued the Electoral Commission and the MP for the area, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah in the aftermath of the election.
The Wenchi High Court has dismissed the Techiman South Parliamentary election petition case by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2020 parliamentary candidate Mr Christopher Beyere Baasongti.
The court presided over by Justice Frederick Arnold Nawurah in its judgment on Wednesday, November 30, 2022, held that the petitioner had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he should have been declared winner of the 2020 parliamentary elections and thus maintained that the petition cannot be sustained.
The Electoral Commission has therefore been ordered to declare NPP’s Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah as MP-elect for the Techiman-South Constituency.
In addition, the court awarded cost of GH¢ 50,000 each against the petitioner and the Electoral Commission.
Background
The Techiman South Parliamentary election petition is one of the 16 legal battles initiated by the ruling NPP and the opposition NDC across the country over the 2020 parliamentary elections.
Mr Baasongti argued that per the votes counted at all the polling stations in Techiman South, he (Baasongti) should have been declared the MP-elect.
“That per the pink sheets the petitioner got from his polling agents at each of the 267 polling stations, the petitioner (Baasongti) garnered 50,306 votes in the parliamentary election, while the first respondent (Korsah) got 50,013 votes,” he argued.
The NDC candidate contended that apart from getting the highest number of votes, there was no collation of the results as required by Regulation 43 of the Public Elections Regulations, 2020 (C.I. 127), but the EC’s returning officer ended up declaring Mr Korsah the winner.
“Up to the date of the filing of the instant election petition, neither the petitioner nor any of his representatives has been invited by the second respondent (EC) or its agents for the collation of the parliamentary results of the Techiman South Constituency,” Mr Baasongti argued.
Among other reliefs, the petitioner is seeking an order from the court directed at the EC to collate the results of all the polling stations in Techiman South and also for the EC to publicly declare him as the winner of the 2020 parliamentary election in the constituency.
