The Returning Officer is the person clothed with the authority to declare a candidate duly elected after Collation of the results from the Polling Stations as recorded on the face of the Pinksheets and consequently on the DECLARATION FORM which is pasted at the place where the declaration is made prior to gazette of same.
The Constituency Returning Officer compiles Pinksheets from the various Presiding Officers who supervised the election at the Polling Stations at a place designated as the Constituency Collation Centre.
The Presidential Returning Officer for the Presidential election is Chairman or Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.
The Declarations made by the Returning Officers are deemed final, and may be challenged only in court, the Constituency Results may be challenged at the High Court via an Election Petition twenty-one days after the Gazette of the Constituency election results and the winner as MP-Elect.
The Presidential election results may only be challenged by a person who contested in that election at the Supreme Court via an Election Petition after the results are gazetted together with the President-Elect.
HEAR THESE STATEMENTS made by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Jean Adukwei Mensa at the DECLARATION of Former President John Dramani Mahama as the President-Elect and subsequently after almost all Parliamentary election results were declared…
“I have the singular honour as the Returning Officer for the Presidential Election to declare….as President Elect, IT IS FINISHED.”
- Jean Adukwei Mensa
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission
“it is important to note that the DECLARATIONS made by our staff, were made under threat and the COMMISSION considers these as ILLEGAL; those DECLARATIONS as well as others that have gone on in other CONSTITUENCIES will not be UPHELD by the COMMISSION.”
- Jean Adukwei Mensah.
Chairperson of the Electoral Commission
Every General election, that is, the Presidential and Parliamentary Election in Ghana is governed by law or a Constitutional Instrument.
The Constitutional Instrument (CI) is laid in Parliament by the Electoral Commission for twenty-one days, after which it becomes the law governing the General Election.
The Constitutional Instrument governing the 2024 is CI 127.
The CI 127is clear about Collation of results from the Election and DECLARATION of a winner (however flawed) which may only be challenged in the designated Court after the gazette of the results and winner only after the stated period in the CI 127.
Administrative decisions of the Electoral Commission are no replacement for Election Petitions which are to be heard by a Court of competent jurisdiction, the High Court in the case of a Parliamentary Election Petition and the Supreme Court in the case of the Presidential Election Petition.
The Electoral Commission ignored an NDC request for an emergency Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) Meeting to resolve the impasse arising from the 2024 Parliamentary election Pinksheets, Collations and Declarations as well as the Re-Collations and Re-Declarations which they deemed illegal per CI 127.
The NDC served Court processes on the Electoral Commission, NPP Parliamentary Candidates and the Police in respect of some disputed Parliamentary Re-Collations being done by the Electoral Commission at the instance of the NPP under the protection of the Police contrary to CI 127.
The NPP served a Court processes from the High Court ordering the Electoral Commission to proceed with the Re-Collations and Re-Declarations.
The NDC also served Court processes from the Supreme Court injuncting the Re-Collations and Re-Declarations.
The Electoral Commission chose to ignore all Court processes served on them by the NDC regarding the 2024 Parliamentary election.
The selectivity of the Electoral Commission in the 2024 Parliamentary election is not limited to the Re-Collations and Re-Declarations but in which of its own processes were proper, which were violent and therefore can be UPHELD by the Electoral Commission as lawful per CI 127.
The fraudulent Damongo Parliamentary declaration was not done by the Returning Officer as required by the CI 127 but in an office without any NDC agent or the media present.
The Electoral Commission accepts the illegal declaration of Samuel Abu Jinapor as MP-Elect for Damongo despite the violence and the burning of the EC office amidst the destruction of the Ballot Boxes, Ballot Papers and Pinksheets of the Damongo Parliamentary election.
The reasons the Electoral Commission cited for the Re-Collations and Re-Declarations are more grave in Damongo yet the Electoral Commission has been silent on the fraudulent Damongo declaration of Samuel Abu Jinapor as MP-Elect.
The obvious double standards of the Electoral Commission is not surprising because of the affiliation s of the persons constituting the Electoral Commission, all of whose members were appointed by President Akufo Addo, two of whom are patrons of the NPP’s Youth Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) on their respective University campuses.
Public statements and prejudicial actions as well as deliberate acts of omission on the part of this pro-NPP Electoral Commission gives away their bias against the NDC and their collusion with the NPP.
The Electoral Commission ahead of the gazette of all the Parliamentary results or Collation and Declaration of some of the MPs-Elect has submitted an uncompleted list to Parliament for the Swearing in ceremony at midnight on 6th January, 2024 promising to complete the list before the date.
This is leading to a potential Constitutional Crisis of double representation of some Constituencies I Parliament, as the NDC will not allow the Voters Votes and Verdict recorded on 7th December, 2024 not to be UPHELD in Parliament on 7th January, 2025.
The Peace Council and others must speak now on the obvious chaotic path that Electoral Commission is leading Ghana or forever hold their Peace.
Will the Election Security Taskforce be enforcing the decisions of the Electoral Commission in Parliament in the wee hours of January, 2025?
Will the Inspector General of Police invite the Military to invade Parliament as occurred on 6th January, 2021 prior to the election of a Speaker of Parliament?
After the Swearing in ceremony in Parliament of MPs and the Speaker; there will be the Swearing in ceremony for the President and Vice President.
President John Dramani Mahama and the NDC Super Majority in Parliament will form the government and have the responsibility of RESETTING GHANA.
The Reset will affect all three arms of government and every sector…
The new John Dramani Mahama-Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang government which will be operating from the FLAGSTAFF HOUSE has a clear mandate from the people of Ghana at the 2024 Election.
The NDC Super Majority in Parliament, with the clearest mandate an numbers in Parliament to do the will of the people of Ghana.
The Akufo Addo-Bawumia government refused to present a Budget for the first quarter ending May 2025, so there will be a Government shutdown because there will be no money to spend from 1st January, 2025.
Parliament is a house of records, nobody is willing to present the Budget because they cannot defend its contents…
Already the Education sector is facing a shutdown due to lack of funds and failure to pay for goods, services, salries and conditions of service just like the Energy Sector did due to the failure to pay the Independent Power Producers leading to Dumsor…
The discoveries by the Transition Team of the incoming government and the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) points to the real State of the Nation, State of the Economy, State of the Public Debt, Corruption and Looting under the Akufo Addo-Bawumia government.
The establishment of the Presidential Commission of Enquiry into the Looted Stolen State Lands and Bungalows as well as the Expropriation of GaDangme Lands will yield even more than already in the public domain…
STAY TUNED.
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