Rerun request by Mahama shocking – US-based lecturer

A Ghanaian lecturer at the Auburn University, Alabama in the United States of America (USA), Dr Hayford Nsiah, has said even if the Supreme Court of Ghana grants John Mahama his relief for a rerun of the 2020 presidential elections, a lot of voters will move away from him and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This, he said, comes on the heels of the reliefs Mr Mahama is seeking with the petition that he has filed at the apex court as against what he and his party told the entire world immediately after the elections, to the effect that they won the Presidential and parliamentary elections yet the Electoral Commission (EC) rigged in favour of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr Mahama refused to accept the results of the elections because in his view the figures were tampered with by the Chair of the Commission in favour of President Akufo-Addo.

He further said Jean Mensa and the other commissioners should have resigned by now following what he described as a blemished election that they conducted on December 7.

The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) told supporters of the party in the Bono East Region on Wednesday December 16 that since the inception of the Fourth Republican constitution, Jean Mensa has been the only chair of the Commission who has demonstrated her inability of conducting a free and fair election.

To that end, he said “If it were to be any of the advanced countries she would have resigned by now.”

He further told the supporters that “We know we won the elections but the results were manipulated.”

Mr Mahama on Wednesday December 30 filed the petition at the apex court which seeks, among other things, a rerun of the presidential elections, asking the Court for an order to restrain Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Second Respondent, from holding himself out as President-elect.

Commenting on this development on the Key Points Programme hosted by Abena Tabi on TV3 Saturday January 2, Dr Nsiah said “Initially, former President Mahama was claiming that he had won the election only to submit the petition and he is now telling us that he doesn’t know that anybody won the election and so there should have been a run off."

“When I read that it took me aback a little bit because I believe strongly that even if it should resolve in a run off that statement he made and what the NDC party made might push certain kind of voters away from them.”