Political analyst Dr. Joshua Jubuntie Zaato has questioned why losing politicians are increasingly allowed to storm coalition centres during elections, warning that recent incidents especially what happened in Kpandai, risk becoming dangerous precedents.
According to him, Ghana’s electoral process appears to be rewarding such conduct at coalition centres.
Speaking on TV3 on December 3 and monitored by NewsDesksGH, Dr. Zaato expressed concern about the behaviour of some political actors.
“It seems increasingly, our political systems or electoral system is beginning or always trying to reward hooliganism at coalition centers,” he said.
He noted that candidates usually know their standing before they arrive at a collation point.
“Sometimes because of the distance and everything, by the time we’re going to the coalition centre, I know whether I’m winning or losing.”
“No winning candidate will storm a coalition centre to stop counting. He already has his pink sheets that he’s winning,” he noted.
Dr. Zaato argued that such disruptions typically come from candidates who fear defeat.
“Only losing candidates and their people storm coalition centers to prevent this from happening,” he said.
He referenced the incident in Nyindam, where NDC supporters are accused by the NPP of invading and vandalizing the collation center, allegedly destroying electoral materials.
The Returning Officer was forced to relocate the collation process to Tamale, where the NPP candidate, Matthew Nyindam, was declared the winner.
Dr. Zaato continued, “In this particular case that we’re seeing in Nyindam? Who stormed the coalition center?” he asked.
“And there are videos to show that NDC people in a pickup who stormed the place, necessitating the moving of the process to Tamale. It would have been declared there,” he claimed.
Dr. Zaato further emphasised the need for stronger security arrangements at collation centres across the country.
“We must be able to provide coalition centres as fortified security zones. Make it almost impossible and impenetrable to prevent hooligans from storming them if not, almost every losing candidate will copy that,” he said.
He warned that Ghana must not allow the Kpandai incident to become a model for future electoral misconduct.
“We shouldn’t let Kpandai be a test case, a copy-cat case. We shouldn’t let losing politicians in our elections copy what happened in Kpandai,” he said.
The NDC candidate, Daniel Nsala Wakpal, challenged the results of the December 7, 2024 in a High Court, citing irregularities and the disruption.
The Tamale High Court. on November, 24, 2025 nullified the original results and ordered a full rerun of the election in the entire constituency within 30 days.
