Blows in NDC over 2016 election results

Nearly two years after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was humiliated at the polls, the opposition party is still fighting over the 2016 election results.

They are at each other’s throat over the collated results as the campaign to elect new national executives intensifies.

The ‘fight’ has ensued between Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, a national chairman aspirant who was the NDC’s Director of Elections during the 2016 general elections, and the camp of former President John Mahama who is staging a comeback to lead the party in 2020.

Matters came to a head when one Michael Ologo believed to be part of the Ofosu Ampofo campaign accused former Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, who is part of the Mahama Campaign, for being in charge of the collation of the election results for 2016.

Dr. Omane Boamah scoffed at the allegation, describing it as ‘deliberate’ and ‘dark lie’ being told to tarnish his reputation.

“I have read with utter surprise a deliberate and dark lie being peddled by one Michael Ologo that I, Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, was in charge of the collation of NDC’s election results for the 2016 elections. This is false! This deliberate lie, unlike others deliberately told in the past, will not be allowed to stand.”

Responsibility

He said “if the said Michael Ologo has the blessings of others to peddle this lie, then they should be advised accordingly. Let me kindly remind Ologo that Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, as a National Vice Chairman of the NDC doubled up as Director of Elections. He must accept responsibility instead of faceless individuals attempting to explain away the fact that election results for 2016 have still not been collated.”

He said “I have largely remained silent about the malignant attempts some individuals made in 2017 to drag my good name into the mud concerning matters that can never stand the test of both logical and factual scrutiny. To all such people, I say to you – from now on; not in my name.”

The former minister explained that “the Logistics Committee included respected party elders such as Mr Ato Ahwoi. Furthermore, the collation of election results was never part of our limited mandate,” adding “I repeat, from now on; not in my name.”

Rigged Polls

With the plot to rig the election terribly backfired leading to its defeat, the NDC has since been dazed with assigning various reasons for the party’s humiliating defeat.

Recently, in Cape Coast, former President Mahama who led the NDC to the embarrassing defeat claimed that the NPP rigged the polls and the opposition party would not be slapped for the second time in 2020.

It has become clear that the abysmal performance of the NDC in the December 7, 2016, general elections is haunting Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo as the party’s Director of Elections.

His critics say he failed to supervise the elections leading to the non-collation of the results in the 2016 election which got the NDC ‘stranded’ on December 7 and 8, 2016 and therefore cannot be trusted as the party’s leader.

Interestingly, by 11 pm on December 7, 2016, then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had in its possession about 80% of all the pink sheet results in the country and had done its calculation to know that their candidate Nana Akufo-Addo was winning the presidential election one-touch.

Botchwey’s Report

The Prof. Kwesi Botchwey-led committee that investigated the reason for NDC’s massive defeat later established that the party did not build any official platform to collate results of the December 2016 general elections.

However, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo claimed recently that the party had the results and were only waiting for the Electoral Commission to ‘gazette’ the official results so that they could authenticate what the NDC had collated.

“When you go to the EC’s website, the presidential result from polling station to polling station has not been gazetted and as a political party we are worried. We are holding our results and they (Electoral Commission) are also holding their results even though we both went into the room.”

“If you want to do proper analysis of the outcome of the elections, you need to get a gazetted presidential result to check it against what we (NDC) also had on the field. As we speak now, the Electoral Commission is yet to gazette the presidential results almost 18 to 19 months after the elections,” he said.

Damning Findings

Strangely, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo appeared before the 13 member Botchwey Committee to explain issues to them but the committee, in its report, made damning findings against the performance of the NDC Election Committee.

Despite the chants of ‘we are winning the election one-touch’ by then incumbent President John Mahama and the later ‘we are in a comfortable lead’ mantra, it turned out the NDC did not collate the results but rather tied the party’s ‘destiny’ to that of Charlotte Osei’s Electoral Commission by relying on the EC’s IT system so when the EC’s system failed, the NDC was caught flat footed, gasping for breath.

Private Arrangement

The NDC members rather relied on Felix Ofosu Kwakye’s ‘private’ arrangement to collate the result which also failed them miserably, according to the report.

Reports at the time said the party was in secret talks with the Electoral Commission to get the results, a move which was unknown to the other political parties.

The report said the party appeared to have relied on Ofosu Kwakye’s private arrangement when the main collation platform set up under the supervision of the Election Directorate headed by Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, could have been strengthened to deliver.

“There were evidently two systems – one party based, and the other, according to Felix Ofosu Kwakye, a private initiative. The Election Directorate evidently regarded Ofosu Kwakye’s initiative as primary whereas Mr. Ofosu Kwakye and his team regarded it only as backup system,” the report said. The NDC collation system was said to have been built by K-Net, the company handling the multi-million dollar digital television migration.