Ebi Bright, the Member of Parliament-elect for Tema Central, has strongly refuted claims made by Fred Tetteh, Deputy Director of Research at the Electoral Commission (EC), regarding violence and irregularities during the collation and declaration of results in Tema Central.
Tetteh in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM expressed his shock at the unprecedented level of violence and coercion witnessed during the collation of results in some constituencies.
He noted for instance that in the case of Tema Central, the presiding officer was assaulted and that it was the District Officer for Tema West who declared the results for the constituency.
“Have you seen the video of Tema Central? You go back and watch carefully the video of Tema Central. How the District Electoral Officer’s stomach is being hit to declare, declare…I am talking about Tema Central and the way they even assaulted him to declare.
“…In the case of Tema, it is the District Officer for Tema West that declared the results for Tema Central. Is it lawful and are the district officers given the writ? Are they the people to conduct the elections,” he stated.
In a rebuttal, Ebi Bright on Point Blank on Eyewitness News on Citi FM said the claim was false.
“I am just scandalised by the conduct of Mr Tetteh. Mr Tetteh is a very embarrassing fellow. You talk about people being held at gunpoint to declare results and you claim that this is the first time in the history of all your electioneering that you are experiencing such a thing and yet you cannot tell us where this happened, and you decided to bring in Tema Central and single us out to impugn such conduct on us.
“On behalf of my constituents and myself and all of us that partook in that exercise, I object, and I must express my disgust because these are the kind of shifty fellows who speak from two sides of their mouth and that is why we are in the situation we are in. Character and integrity have been missing from the conduct of the EC and this is shameful. We have no confidence in you anymore because of conduct like this.”
Ebi Bright challenged Tetteh to provide evidence of any assaults or brutalities in Tema Central during the collation process.
“Which of your officers was assaulted in Tema Central? Which tape exists on brutalities or beatings on any individual in Tema Central because of collation? This is awful. You kept us for three days just to collate parliamentary results and you expect that people don’t see through actions and understand that you are trying to subvert our mandate,” she added.
Ebi Bright emphasised that the elections were conducted lawfully and that the process must be followed according to the law.
“The elections were held in accordance with law and it was a lawful process that must be followed by law,” she said.
Bright secured a total of 18,539 votes, narrowly defeating her opponent, Charles Forson of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who garnered 18,421 votes. The razor-thin margin underscored the intensity of the contest.