The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has alleged that Electoral Commission (EC) officers are being coerced to review election results they have already declared in the just-ended presidential and parliamentary election.
General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said at a press conference on Tuesday, December 8, that any recounting at the collation centre flouts the electoral laws.
“In fact, the process of recounting cannot be initiated at the collation centre at all. The law is very, very clear. If at the polling station you disagree with any result, you call for a recount at the polling station and the presiding officer must comply.
“If you are not satisfied you can call for a second time. If the presiding officer disagrees with you, you can indicate on the sheet that you want the contents of a particular ballot box to be recounted at the collation centre. It is only there and then that a box can be opened at a collation centre for recounting,” he said.
He explained that if no such request for a recount at the collation centre had been initiated at the polling station, “nobody, including the constituency returning officer, has no right to open any box for recounting at the collation centre.”
He said the NDC and President John Dramani Mahama will win the election with a substantial number of votes, and urged the EC to make sure the will of Ghanaians is upheld.
“We can project that the President Mahama is heading towards victory because there is a very strong correlation between Presidential results and Parliamentary results,” Asiedu Nketia said.
Already the NDC is claiming parliamentary victory in 141 constituencies.
Former President John Dramani Mahama is attempting to win back the Presidency from Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr Mahama lost to Akufo-Addo in the 2016 election by a huge margin.
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