Electoral Commission’s swift declaration of results suspicious

Electoral Commission’s swift declaration of results suspicious - Mahama

NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama with EC Chair Jean Mensa

The NDC’s presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that the Electoral Commission’s swift declaration of presidential results in the 2020 elections is very “suspicious”.

The EC within 48 hours of voting on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, declared the incumbent President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the president-elect of Ghana. The NPP’s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo polled 51% of votes to beat the NDC flagbearer John Dramani Mahama who polled 47% of votes according to the EC.

Addressing the country at a press conference on Thursday, December 10, 2020, the former President indicated that the hurried declaration of results shows that the EC was acting in the interest of their masters.

According to him, the EC chair, Jean Mensa, violated due process by declaring the results in less than 72 hours as done in the past.

“My Brothers and Sisters, advisedly, since the inception of the Fourth Republic, final election results have always been declared within 72 hours to allow for a thorough and diligent collation. Surprisingly, this Electoral Commission Chairperson announced, quite suspiciously and for reasons known to her, a hurried 24-hour deadline, which, as we all know, could not, and would not, be met,” Mahama said.

The NDC flagbearer also noted that the EC’s confirmation of errors in the declared results casts doubts on the credibility of the results.

He stated, “The Chairperson of the EC, in less than 24 hours after her declaration, has admitted that she has made unacceptable errors, which go to the heart of the entire electoral process and cast deep doubt on the credibility of the announced outcome.”

The EC on Thursday issued a statement admitting an error in the declared results.

However, the EC Chairperson stated that she “inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast”.

“The total valid votes cast is 13,119,460. This does not change the percentages stated for each candidate and the declaration made by the Chairperson,” the EC said in the statement issued Thursday, December 10, 2020.