Ghana’s Electoral Commission is under renewed pressure after Presidential Advisor Dr Valerie Esther Sawyerr demanded a rerun of parliamentary polls in 62 polling stations within the Ablekuma North Constituency, citing irregularities and compromised vote collation.
In a statement sharply critical of the EC’s handling of the December 2024 elections, Dr Sawyerr accused the commission of failing to uphold electoral integrity, warning that the current results cannot be deemed credible without proper validation.
“The voice of the people must be heard,” she wrote. “Let us all tell the EC that enough is enough.”
The controversy stems from violent incidents during the collation of results at the Ablekuma North centre. According to Dr Sawyerr, those disturbances led to the destruction of the original carbonated pink sheets — official Electoral Commission documents used to verify polling station results.
Out of the 281 polling stations in the constituency, Dr Sawyerr says only 219 had results properly collated with original pink sheets. The remaining 62, she argues, were excluded from credible collation, creating what she described as a “legitimacy crisis.”
She contends that the subsequent use of scanned copies of the pink sheets — many of which were submitted by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) — violates electoral protocol and undermines transparency.
“No ground stomping, no walks from Timbuktu to Accra… will make what is wrong… right,” Dr Sawyerr wrote, calling on the EC to “order a rerun at the sixty-two (62) polling stations… and stop wasting our time.”
The internal decision-making process within the Electoral Commission has also come under scrutiny. Dr Sawyerr pointed to apparent contradictions between senior EC officials. While Dr Benjamin Bannor Bio, Director of Elections, reportedly dismissed the use of scanned forms, the Director of Training, Dr Sereboe Quaicoe, later authorised them.
This, Dr Sawyerr insists, is an overreach: “On what authority does a Director for Training overturn the decision of a Director of Elections at this stage of the electioneering process?”
She also rejected EC claims that all political parties had agreed to the use of scanned forms, labelling the assertion a “bold-faced lie.”
According to her, the Electoral Commission attempted to retroactively validate the questionable forms by inviting 17 presiding officers to authenticate the scanned documents. However, she alleges that many of them could not confirm the accuracy of the materials presented.
“The EC has misled the public and acted unfairly,” Dr Sawyerr stated. “Peace cannot be guaranteed in Ablekuma North without electoral justice.”
Calling for calm but firm resistance, she concluded: “I am for peace… Shalom.”
The Electoral Commission has yet to formally respond to the allegations. The dispute has added to the broader post-election discourse in Ghana, with growing calls from opposition figures and civil society groups for enhanced transparency and accountability in the nation’s electoral process.
