Akufo-Addo is the legitimate winner, EC did not pad votes in his favour - Jean Mensa

Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa has reiterated candidate Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party is the legitimate winner of the December 2020 elections.

According to her, the Electoral Commission did not in any way pad electoral votes to favour President Akufo-Addo as alleged by the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama.

The former president Mahama, in a petition filed at the Supreme Court pointed out that both candidates did not obtain 50 percent of valid votes as required to declare the winner and is therefore seeking a rerun of the December 7, 2020 election.

But in a reaction to Mr Mahama’s claims, Jean Mensa who is also the Returning Officer of the 2020 presidential elections in a statement explained: “a tabulation of all Valid Votes obtained by all 12 Candidates as declared by the Electoral Commission on 9th December 2020 and captured on Form 13 adds up to a total of 13,121,111,” Jean Mensa's statement is quoted by Citi News.

“The calculations showed that the 2nd Respondent [President Akufo-Addo] had obtained more than 50% of the valid votes. It was also clear that whatever results were outstanding at the time could not mathematically change the more than 50% of the valid votes as obtained by the 2nd Respondent,” it added.

Among the petition filed by Mr Mahama, he contended that results declared by the Electoral Commission for both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections would have turned out differently if results of the Techiman South constituency had been properly collated and added.

Mrs Jean Mensa in a response to the claim explained that the already certified and released results of the Techiman South constituency has justified the “mathematics based on which the result was declared on 9th December 2020.”

With pre-trail proceedings of the petition already taking place at the Supreme Court, the legal team of former president Mahama are now seeking to halt the entire election petition.

Mr Mahama’s lawyers told the apex court to review its ruling on his interrogatories to the Electoral Commission.

The Apex Court will however hear and give a ruling on a stay of proceedings application on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.