2016 Election wasn’t rigged - NDC Regional Communications Officer

Ashanti Regional Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samed Akalilu has waded into claims that the December 2016 elections were rigged in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

According to him, such claims by members including some executives of the party are unfounded and lack merit indicating that the processes involved in conducting the election was more transparent than previous ones.

He believes the 2016 elections could pass for Ghana’s best and was done devoid of the numerous cases of violent incidents and agitations but said the NDC fail to do what was required leading to its abysmal performance at the polls.

“The 2016 election was fair, transparent and devoid of violence as it has always been the case. I will disagree with anyone who says the election was rigged. This was one of the country’s best elections considering a number of things that happened”, he said.

In his view, the NDC rather gifted the elections to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP through their actions citing instances where executives failed to address pertinent issues that will inure to the party’s victory.

“We had party communicators lacking the basic logistics to do their work and unemployed youth searching for jobs to no avail among others issues. Instead of working to address these challenges, we were focusing on what I deemed as irrelevant which culminated in our defeat though avoidable. Ballot box snatching and acrimonies at the various polling stations as witnessed in the past were not witnessed.

I have written a comprehensive document on what led to the party’s defeat and matters arising and will make it public at the right time” he told Kwame Adinkra on Abusua Nkomo.