NDC’s case emboldened with EC’s varying figures – Franklin Cudjoe

The varying figures presented by the Electoral Commission will only embolden the opposition National Democratic Congress' (NDC) stance to reject the results of the general election, President of policy think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has said.

A day after the EC declared the results of the 2020 presidential election, it moved to rectify some discrepancies in the figures but stressed it had no impact on the declaration.

In a statement, the EC said Jean Mensa “inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast. The total valid votes cast is 13,119,460. This does not change the percentages stated for each candidate and the declaration made by the Chairperson."

Reacting to the development on CitiTV's Big Issue, Franklin Cudjoe maintained the inconsistency in the figures churned out by EC will only entrench the NDC’s belief that the just ended general election was flawed.

“The EC’s back and forth has not helped any of the candidates. Now it is giving people, especially the NDC, the chance to be emboldened to say that, the fact that you admit that you have made errors, which was not made once leaves room for doubt. The EC on three separate occasions changed the results after they first announced that they had made mistakes,” Franklin Cudjoe explained.

“You are seeing a situation where they are rather now entrenching the belief, however vague it is, that somebody won or lost improperly. I think the major burden we have now is to deal with the inconsistent nature of the EC,” Mr. Cudjoe added.

He continued, “If the EC needs to thank anybody, it should thank CODEO, the CDD for having had a parallel system otherwise the shambolic processes of trying to change results, which in itself instigates crisis or confidence would have quite monumental.”

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama has however declared he will not accept the results of the December 7 elections.

At a press conference following the declaration of presidential results, John Mahama accused Chairperson of the EC, Jean Mensa, of making an error in computing the valid votes for presidential results.

Mr. Mahama stated this “casts deep doubt on the credibility” of the results declared by the Chairperson of the elections management body.

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has said the results declared by Ghana’s Electoral Commission for the 2020 Presidential election is accurate as it reflects on how citizens voted.

According to the group, “Given that the official result announced by the Electoral Commission for each candidate falls within their respective Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) estimated confidence ranges, CODEO can confidently confirm that its PVT estimates are consistent with the official presidential election results."

“Not only do CODEO’s PVT estimates match the official results of the EC, but our Observers also reported that the two main parties (NDC and NPP) had party agents at over 99% of polling stations and that both NDC and NPP party agents also signed the official declaration of polls and were given copies of those documents,” it added.