Lawyer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate in the Fanteakwa North constituency, Isaac Mintah Larbi has rejected the re-declaration of the constituency election which declared the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate, Kwame Appiah Kodua as the winner, describing it as a joke.
According to him, the decision by the Electoral Commission to re-declare the NPP candidate as the MP-elect is not grounded in law and amounts to abuse of the electoral process.
“They [EC] have not said they have overturned it [earlier declaration]. All they have done is what we call duplicitous. They’ve just duplicated the declaration, which has already happened. But in this instance, all they have done is that they’ve done it wrongly and not in accordance with law,” he said.
Isaac Mintah Larbi reacting to today’s declaration of Kwame Appiah Kodua as the parliamentary candidate-elect, said the EC erred in all the processes to embark on another declaration outside the jurisdiction.
“This thing is a joke, and I don’t know if they did this purposely to please their masses or their followers. It won’t go anywhere. You know, you can’t have two declarations. The first declaration has been made. Once that is done, if anybody is equipped, the remedy available is for the person to go to court, but not to go and use some powers that be that you think you have, and use it to go and have another declaration that is wrong.
“This a complete abuse of the process. And even for the Electoral Commission to allow this to happen means that they themselves don’t respect their own laws, and they should not allow this to happen.
“Ghanaians have rejected the NPP and this kind of EC that we have. And so once they have lost the elections, they should understand that we do not tolerate this kind of attitude anymore. We will not tolerate it. The person we know is Haruna Apaw-Wiredu, he is the MP-elect for Fanteakwa North and is the one who is going to Parliament. If you don’t understand, go to court. That is the option on the table.
Today’s declaration follows Tuesday’s declaration of the NDC candidate, Haruna Apaw-Wiredu by the returning officer, Zacharia Adams in Begoro.
Read also: EC relocates Eastern region results collation to Tesano Police Training School amid heated disagreements
The Electoral Commission today moved the collation of disputed results in some constituencies in the Eastern region to the Police training school in Tesano in Accra to avoid the chaotic scenes witnessed previously.
According to the lawyer who is also the Director of Legal Affairs for the NDC in the Eastern region, the conduct of the EC amounts to contempt of court.
He explained that he’s already filed and served an injunction application at the Koforidua High Court to stop the EC from embarking on today’s exercise.
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