Mr. Fian- Naa K. Nicholas a candidate in the just ended District Level Elections (DLE) in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District of the Savannah region has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) and the New (NPP) in the constituency of conniving to turn the Assembly elections held in the District into a partisan elections in favour of the NPP.
Fian- Naa Nicholas speaking on the Morning show of Bole based Nkilgi Fm on 26th January 2024 said on the the 19th of December, 2023 which was the date set for the Assembly elections, he visited the four polling stations assigned by the EC for the Sawla PWD Zongo electoral area of which he was a candidate with three other aspiring candidates.
He mentioned the polling stations as St. Augustine primary polling station where he personally votes, St. Cyprian seminary polling station and PWD ‘A’ and ‘B’.
According to Fian- Naa Nicholas upon reaching his designated polling station where he votes, he realized that Executives of the NPP in the constituency were there because he knew most of them and their polling station executives and that after his observations at the polling center he told his campaign manager Seidu Abdul Karim to be vigilant especially since there were initial difficulties in using the Biometric Vendor Machine (BVD).
Fian- Naa Nicholas said, after the close of polls he went to the other polling centers to check on the results being collated and got the results.
He said at the St. Augustine Primary School polling station, he (Fian-Naa Nicholas) had 73 votes,
Ba-eneh Gladys 1,
Issahaku Seidu Galbeo 2, and
Jerkeleh Joseph 98 with Rejected and spoiled ballot being 12. He said the Total ballot cast were 186 but the Number of persons verified by BVD machine was 184 and that the number of persons manually verified was zero and it was this point he realized that there was an additional over voting of plus two people at that polling station because the total ballot cast recorded were 186 votes and the number of persons verified by BVD machine were 184 with the number of persons manually verified being zero.
The Assemblyman aspirant said he raised concerns to the EC officials that there was an over voting and his agent and subsequently asked for a recount and it was realised that the EC officials couldn’t balance the verified votes to the number of people who voted.
He said, NPP supporters were busily jubilating with known party people like the District Chief Executive (DCE) Hajia Barikisu Losina being around.
According to Fian- Naa Nicholas, he requested for the elections at that polling center to be declared null and void per the EC’s own laws and a new elections to be held later.
He added that even though the EC officials had not declared the results yet, the ballots were moved to the District EC office and he was told to come back the next day for them to resolve the situation.
Fian- Naa Nicholas said the next day he was sent a video by his friend that the results of the PWD Electoral area had been declared by the EC in Sawla in favour of Mr Jerkeleh Joseph a known NPP member in Sawla.
He said, he went straight to the EC office and was told by the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District EC officer that he was under pressure to declare the results from powers above him.
Mr Fian- Naa Nicholas said he reminded the officer of the abnormalities and also that his agent didn’t sign the pink sheet because they detected that two of the voter forms had no officials stamps of the electoral commission on them.
He said he has since invited his Lawyer to follow up the case and after a meeting with the EC officials they assured him that the abnormalities encountered at the St. Augustine primary polling station will be rectified but there is a delay because they have to seek approvals from above which will take a long period.
Nkilgi Fm’s efforts to get the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District Electoral Commission Officer Mr James Suuk Tii to respond to the allegations of tryinbro cheat the Assemblyman Aspirant proved futile.
Source: nkilgifmonline.com
