Ghana’s EC must learn lessons from worst elections ever – Mahama

The main opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) Presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama, says it will be wrong for the nation’s democratic principles to sweep the flaws in the 2020 polls under the carpet.

He noted that the EC must learn from the errors it committed to ensuring they’re never repeated in future polls.

“This is the most incompetent election we’ve had. I mean everything about this election does not reach the standards that Ghana’s Electoral Commission has attained for itself. Ghana’s electoral commission is held in high esteem as one of the best electoral commissions unfortunately this election…she can’t even get the results right; the declaration is all over the place,” Mr. Mahama said in an interview with the VOA’s Peter Clottey on the 2020 polls.

Mr Mahama has called for an independent forensic investigation into the recent elections.

“If an independent audit is done by the EC, we bring somebody in to crunch the numbers, do an independent audit, if I lost why not? I mean I’ll be the first to concede and walk away…”

He intimated that his party is conducting the same on the “flawed” elections indicating the conclusion of the inquiry will determine their next line of action.

“We are currently doing a forensic audit of all the constituencies first to establish what happened there and then secondly to re-confirm the figures that we have. Because this case might end up in court, I don’t know, I cannot mention anything for now, but we are doing an audit, and based on that, we’ll take whatever decision we need to take.

“But I think that the incompetence that the EC has shown, it would be useful for us to do a forensic audit of the EC’s own systems and the numbers to come to what the final number of the EC is. Because as at now I don’t know what number they’re going to gazette,” the former leader said.

NDC rejects 2020 election results

The NDC has rejected the results of the polls which gives the NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo over 51% of the valid votes cast. They have accused the Electoral Commission of rigging the polls for the incumbent.

NDC flagbearer John Mahama has publicly rejected the results of the 2020 polls in his first presser after the EC declaration of the results.

“In respect of the Presidential elections: the facts and figures available to us from pink sheets and other evidence that has unfolded across the country, indicate that numerous steps have been taken to manipulate the results of the election in favor of the incumbent President. This calls into question the credibility of one of our most important institutional pillars of democracy—the Electoral Commission. It is now obvious to many objective minds that the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission has been used to manipulate results from the various constituencies and in that process seek to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghana People.

“We will not accept anything short of a declaration of the legitimate results, which point to an NDC Parliamentary Majority. 3 My Brothers and Sisters, advisedly, since the inception of the Fourth Republic, final election results have always been declared within 72 hours to allow for a thorough and diligent collation”.