President John Dramani Mahama has told supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to be disheartened but remain optimistic as the nation awaits the official results of the December 7 polls from the Electoral Commission (EC).

“Don’t let your spirits be down, we are a great party. Let’s wait for EC figures and do our own comparison,” Mr Mahama, who stood for a second term in office in Wednesday’s ballot, stated on Friday, December 9, as he addressed hundreds of supporters who had gathered at his Cantonments residence in Accra.

Mr Mahama added that the “NDC respects rule of law” and that as a party “we will respect the results of the EC whether positive or negative”.

Meanwhile the election conducting body has said that it has received 210 collated results from constituencies across the county out of a total of 275 but the turnout has been disappointing.

According to the Chairperson of the EC Charlotte Osei, a 49 per cent turnout has been recorded, which is “very disappointing” compared to statistics from previous elections.

Ms Osei who was speaking at a press conference on Friday, December 9, urged the public to remain calm as the commission will announce the final results within 72 hours.

The commission also admonished political parties to liaise with their agents at the National Collation Centre to expedite processes in signing the results to enable the commission fast- track the announcement of the final results.

She assured that there was no way the commission could manipulate the results and would announce the results as has been collated from the polling stations.