Election 2020: Jean Mensa-led EC has been super – Anyidoho

The Chief Executive Officer of the Atta Mills Institute, Mr Koku Anyidoho, has described the conduct of this year’s parliamentary and presidential polls as “super, free and fair.”

Sharing his observations on the electoral process in an interview on Wednesday, 9 December 2020 at the Electoral Commission’s collation centre, the former Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), said: “The election has been generally free and fair…”

He debunked earlier assertions made by members of the biggest opposition party that there was heavy military presence in the Volta Region to deter the electorate from coming out to vote.

Mr Anyidoho stated: “There were talks of military deployment in the Volta Region but it wasn’t so. You will find police, CEPS, Fire Service and Prisons [officials], no military presence at any polling station where I went to or where my team went to.”

He applauded the EC for a smooth electioneering process.

“Then the electoral process itself, for me, Jean Mensa and her EC, as we have commended all from the days of Nana Oduro Nimapau to Justice Ofori Boateng to Dr Afari Gyan through Charlotte Osei and now Jean Mensa, as a nation, we must just tap ourselves on the shoulder and say we have progressed since 1992.

“This is the eighth and this year, what Jean Mensa and the EC have done is super”.

“The initial narrative as if to say the BVDs have been programmed to run the election in the direction of one political party is not true. Those BDVs were not programmed to run the election in the direction of one political party, it verifies everybody…” Mr Anyidoho told Kwesi Parker-Wilson of Accra-based Joy News.

Meanwhile, the EC has said it will declare the winner of Monday’s polls by the end of today, Wednesday, 9 December 2020.

The EC had intended announcing the results by 5 pm Tuesday but could not stick to its own deadline due to some “challenges”.

“We express our regret for our inability to declare the results at 5 pm on Tuesday, as planned”, EC Chair Jean Mensa told journalists Wednesday dawn.

“The unexpected rains and some of the challenges we experienced at the collation centre, made it difficult to declare the result as expected”, she explained.

She said: “We are hoping that, in the early hours of today, we will receive two additional results and will, thereafter, be able to make the declaration today”.

The Commission has received 14 out of the 16 regional results.