The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced plans to reinstate the Returning Officer for Ablekuma North, Vincent Obeng, to complete the collation of parliamentary results for the constituency.

Mr. Obeng had earlier declared his intention to step down from the collation process, citing frustrations during the exercise on January 8, 2025. He requested the EC to appoint a replacement to conclude the collation.

However, speaking at the collation centre in Accra on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, the EC’s Director of Training, Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, acknowledged Mr. Obeng’s frustrations but clarified that his withdrawal 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.

“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 be their leaders be it presidential or parliamentary,” he stated.

Mr. Obeng had earlier confirmed that collation for Ablekuma North remained incomplete, with only three polling stations left out of a total of seven. He noted that results from four polling stations had already been successfully collated.

Tensions escalated at the Greater Accra Regional Office during the resumption of the collation process, with chaos breaking out after the EC moved to continue the exercise. The disruption stemmed from accusations by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the EC was colluding with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to alter election results in the constituency.

The NDC’s Constituency Organiser, Musa Kalamu, alleged that the EC was aiding the NPP in manipulating figures from pink sheets of the remaining polling stations.

The EC had earlier suspended the collation process on January 6, 2025, to resolve outstanding issues with results from seven polling stations, seeking to verify and authenticate the figures before resuming.

Out of the 20 outstanding polling stations initially pending before the collation exercise on Monday, January 6, presiding officers successfully authenticated pink sheets from 13 polling stations submitted by the NPP.