Court orders EC to produce Savelugu collation sheets

The Tamale High Court  hearing  the Savelugu parliamentary  election petition filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for the 2020 election, Mr Muhamed Abdul-Samed Gunu, has granted his application  for the inspection and copies of the collation form (Form C) for the  December 7, 2020 parliamentary election results in the custody of the Electoral Commission (EC).

The court presided over by Mr Justice Daniel Obeng granted the request  of the petitioner at the  sitting of the court on Tuesday, June 8, 2021.

Consequently, it ordered the EC, which  is the first respondent in the case, to produce the collation sheets (Form C) for inspection  by both the petitioner and the second respondent in the case, Mr Abdulai Jacob Iddris, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Savelugu,  by June 18, 2021, and also  provide copies of same to them after the inspection.

Hearing has been adjourned to June 21, 2021, for case management.

The petitioner filed the application at the court on May 21, 2021, requesting  for the inspection and copies of the collation sheets in the custody of the EC because he believed the  exercise, which had to be finally moved to Tamale, the regional capital , was marred with electoral malpractices and irregularities.

Because of these, the petitioner said he had no copies of the collation sheets, collation summary forms, hence the request for the EC to produce those documents for inspection.

The second respondent opposed  the application but the EC did not raise any objection to it and the presiding judge, Mr Justice Obeng, upheld the application and directed the EC to produce the documents for inspection by June 18, 2021.

Petition

Mr  Gunu in January, this year, filed the petition at the Tamale High Court challenging the validity of the results declaration of Mr Iddris as the winner of the polls by the EC.

The parliamentary election petition dated January 8, 2021, had the EC as the first respondent and Alhaji Abdulai Jacob Iddris, the NDC 2020 parliamentary candidate , who won the election, as the second respondent.

Mr Gunu secured 19,478 votes while Alhaji Abdulai Jacob Iddris , the NDC candidate, obtained 19, 577 votes.

The petition stated that " The purported election of the NDC candidate as a Member of Parliament for Savelugu is invalid owing to widespread malpractices and irregularities which affected the outcome of the impugned election".

It said the parliamentary and presidential elections were vitiated by gross and widespread malpractices that substantially and materially affected the results as declared by the EC in favour of Alhaji Iddris, parliamentary candidate of the NDC.

It stated further that " When a proper reckoning is made of only lawful and valid votes  cast,  he (Gunu) ought to have been declared the duly elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the area".