Current EC a pale shadow of Charlotte Osei - IMANI

The conduct of the Electoral Commission in the December 7 general elections has triggered a blistering tirade from Civil Society Organisations(CSOs) and some pressure groups in the country.

The seeming dishonesty of the Election Management Body(EMB) vis a vis the presentation of electoral figures are seen as a big blow to Ghana’s legacy polls, leaving the main opposition leader refusing to concede defeat almost a week after the elections amidst the recorded fatalities.

Commenting on the development, President of IMANI-Africa, Franklin Cudjoe said the sins of the current crop of EC officials are many and unpardonable.

He claimed the entire current EC is a pale shadow of the past administration led by, Charlotte Osei.

“Turns out some people think everyone has an autopilot brain. Yes, I criticised Charlotte when some of her decisions were troubling, but compared to the brave bare lies, tender rigging re biometric machines, shameful procurement gigs, and shambolic basic math errors that has generated a crisis of confidence, the entire current EC is a pale shadow of Charlotte! Eat it!! IMANI shall be releasing its own report and recommendations on the conduct of this EC. Enjoy your Sunday.”

Mahama rejecting election results

The main Opposition NDC leader, John Mahama has vowed to challenge the election result in the courts, after the neck-and-neck race that he believed was stolen for President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He has thus refused to concede defeat citing overwhelming voter fraud which ultimately dashed the hopes of clean polls in the 2020 general elections.

“It’s for this reason that my colleagues and I in the NDC will not accept what we know to be a fraudulent outcome of this election,” he noted, adding “and we’ll take all legitimate steps to reverse this travesty of justice,” he told a press conference in the capital, Accra.

EU Observers

The European Union observers in Ghana’s election have said while voting process was transparent, collation was ‘less transparent’.

“Collation of results at the constituency level was observed in 35 constituency collation centres with many of them being visited repeatedly. Collation process was less well organised and less transparent often due to a lack of detailed procedures, inadequate facilities and overcrowding which at times led to agents and observers not having a clear view of the procedures and the filling in of result forms.

“Instances of unrest and tension were observed in Asawase, Sunyani West and Techiman South constituencies. The results were collated in the presence of party agents and observers and key transparency measures were adhered to,” the Union said in their report.

According to the EU observers, Presiding officers of the Electoral Commission had challenge completing the results form.

“Counting, observed in 30 polling stations, was conducted in a largely transparent manner and always in a presence of party agents. The overall conduct of the counting process was assessed positively in 27 cases. However, the EU EOM observers reported that procedures, such as counting of unused ballots, counting of ticks in the voter register and names reference list, counting of ballots in the ballot box, cross-checking the number of ballots in the ballot box against the number of ticks in the voter register, and recording the number of voters verified by the BVD and manually, were frequently not followed. Furthermore, presiding officers appeared to have difficulties completing the result forms. The polling station result forms were not publicly displayed in 17 polling stations although party agents received signed copy of the result form in all cases”.