Vincent Obeng, the Returning Officer for the Ablekuma North constituency, has resigned from his role due to frustrations encountered during the parliamentary results collation process.
Mr. Obeng stepped down on January 8, 2025, citing difficulties in the collation of results. He formally requested that the Electoral Commission (EC) appoint a replacement to continue the task, as results from three out of seven remaining polling stations were yet to be collated.
Despite his resignation, the EC has expressed its intention to reinstate Mr. Obeng to complete the collation process. At the collation centre in Accra on the same day, the EC’s Director of Training, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, acknowledged Mr. Obeng’s frustrations but emphasized that the decision was not final.
“I think it is out of frustration that he is saying what he said, and I understand him, but I don’t think that it is the end of the road, we will get him back,” Dr. Quaicoe stated. “I want to put on record that the commission has no interest at all in who becomes the MP, but we should be very careful with the precedent we set. It is the voter who should choose their leaders, be it presidential or parliamentary.”
Before his resignation, Mr. Obeng confirmed that results from four polling stations had already been successfully collated, with three still outstanding.
Ablekuma North returning officer “abandons” work, says he cannot continue the recollation exercise! pic.twitter.com/iUmFrEQ5DQ
— Vanessa Edotom Boateng (@VanessaEboateng) January 8, 2025
The resignation has heightened tensions at the Greater Accra Regional Office, where chaos erupted during the resumption of the collation process. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the EC of colluding with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to manipulate figures from the remaining polling stations.
The NDC’s Constituency Organiser, Musa Kalamu, alleged that the EC was “aiding the NPP in doctoring figures from the remaining polling stations to influence the final outcome.”
Earlier, the EC had suspended the collation process on January 6, 2025, due to unresolved discrepancies in results from seven polling stations. Out of 20 initially outstanding polling stations, presiding officers had successfully verified and authenticated 13 pink sheets submitted by the NPP before the suspension.
