Ghana on knife-edge as opposition rallies supporters to hit streets

Tension is growing in the West African nation of Ghana as citizens wait for the final results of the presidential elections held on Monday, 7 December 2020.

Leaders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are calling on their supporters to stand their grounds as they suspect foul play in the just-ended elections.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, called on supporters to protect the “will of Ghanaians.”

He said they will resist oppressors’ rule.

“Evidence available to us formally from polling stations across the country and specific to the constituencies in Ghana puts the NDC in the lead in 140 seats. That makes us the majority party while we wait for the declaration of the presidential outcome. Know that there are attempts by the New Patriotic Party government led by President Nana Akufo-Addo who wants to shamefully subvert the sovereign will of the people of Ghana and even to reduce our parliamentary numbers by five.

“We demand respect to the letter and spirit of the laws of our land. Guns will not make Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo the president of this country. We’ll resist oppressors’ rule. They are using the military to intimidate our people. We demand respect and professionalism from our military. No gun will install a president in this Republic, and we’ve alerted our supporters across this country. We’ll respect the sovereign will of Ghanaians and the legitimacy of their thumbs. Not a threat of a gun by any policeman or soldier will intimidate us. We’re not cowards. We’ll not succumb or yield to any pressures,” he noted.

For his part, Lt. Gen (rtd) Gbevlo Lartey, Director of Operations for NDC and a former National Security Coordinator said: “Our military should be professionals and stay out of this election. The law prescribes how the results should be processed. The tension that is brewing down there can lead to disruption. We must protect the peace of this country. We have asked our supporters to stand their grounds for fairness and insist that the right should be done. Nobody is going to accept any impunity.”

Declaration of results

The chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, is hopeful her outfit will be in a good position to declare the presidential results of the 2020 elections today, Wednesday, 9 December.

“We express our regret for our inability to declare the results at 5pm on Tuesday as planned. The unexpected rains and some of the challenges we experienced at the Collation Centre made it difficult to declare the results as expected. 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,” she said at a midnight press conference in Accra.

She added: “As we speak, the Commission has received 14 out of the 16 regional results. We have the national Collation Centre where we have had representatives of the various political parties since yesterday.

“As the results come in, the party representatives review them against what they themselves have received from the regions and once they are satisfied that the results that have come to us from the regions are a true reflection of what they have received, they then append their signatures to it before the results are brought to my attention.

“As Returning Officer of the 2020 presidential election, I then certify these results. Out of the 14 results received, we have certified seven up to date.”