Walewale NPP Primary: A judge orders the ballot box to be opened in a contentious election

 

In the ongoing Walewale NPP parliamentary primary dispute, the plaintiff, Hajia Lariba Abudu, filed a motion with the Tamale High Court. The motion requested that the Electoral Commission open the ballot box and provide copies of the voter register used during the polls on January 27, 2024. August 7, 2024, was the Wednesday when this decision was made.

Judge Richard Kogyapwa presided over the court, which had earlier denied an application by the first defendant, Dr. Kabiru Tia Mahama, requesting to stop the vote box from being opened to conduct more investigation.

Hajia Lariba Abudu asked the judge to conduct a ballot recount in her declaration of claim. She further requested that the court rerun the election if it was discovered that the ballots had been tampered with or could not be provided.

Accordingly, the court had already ordered that the voter registration and ballot box used in the election be presented before it. All parties engaged in the case were to get copies of the register.

Several NPP members thought to be close to Dr. Kabiru Tia Mahama showed strong resistance to this direction. But when the court decided in the plaintiff's favor, the registrar of the court brought the ballot box into the courtroom, opened it, and gave copies of the voter register for inspection.

Sylvester Isang, the plaintiff's attorney, said that after looking over the register, he discovered anomalies such as absentee delegates' involvement, votes cast by deceased delegates, and instances of duplicate voting that corroborated Hajia Lariba Abudu's allegations.

To allow for case management and potential trial, the case has been postponed until August 14, 2024.