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Ablekuma North Returning Officer who quit over recollation impasse will be reinstated - EC
Ablekuma North Returning Officer who quit over recollation impasse will be reinstated - EC
By: Nii Ammui Fio | 2 mins read
The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced its decision to reinstate Vincent Obeng, the Returning Officer for the Ablekuma North constituency, to complete the collation of parliamentary results after he stepped down citing frustrations during the process.
Mr. Obeng withdrew from the collation exercise on January 8, 2025, and requested the EC to appoint a replacement, explaining that the challenges he faced had made it difficult for him to continue.
However, speaking at the collation centre in Accra on the same day, the EC’s Director of Training, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, assured that efforts were being made to bring Mr. Obeng back, emphasizing that his decision was not final.
“I think it is out of frustration that he is saying what he said, and I understand him, but I don’t think that it is the end of the road, we will get him back.
“I want to put on record that the commission has no interest at all in who becomes the MP, but we should be very careful with the precedent we set. It is the voter who should choose their leaders, be it presidential or parliamentary,” he said.
Mr. Obeng had previously confirmed that the collation process was incomplete, with three polling stations yet to be collated out of seven. He noted that results from four polling stations had already been successfully collated.
The situation escalated when tensions flared at the Greater Accra Regional Office during the resumption of collation, as chaos erupted between party representatives. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) accused the EC of colluding with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to manipulate figures from pink sheets of the remaining polling stations.
The NDC’s Constituency Organiser, Musa Kalamu, alleged that the EC was “aiding the NPP in doctoring figures from the remaining polling stations to influence the final outcome.”
The EC had earlier suspended the collation process on January 6, 2025, due to unresolved discrepancies with results from seven polling stations. The suspension aimed to allow the commission to verify and authenticate figures before proceeding with the final collation.
Out of the 20 polling stations originally pending before the collation resumed, 13 pink sheets submitted by the NPP were verified and authenticated by presiding officers before the suspension.
