Changes of electoral figures an indication of failure – Mahama's aide

Special Aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari has said that the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission (EC) failed Ghanaians in the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

She explained that the decision by the EC to change figures after the declaration of the results is a clear indication of failure.

The EC corrected the total valid votes put out during the declaration of results on Wednesday, December 9.

Chairperson Jean Mensa declared the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo as the President-elect based on a total of 13,433,573 valid votes instead of 13,119,460.

In a statement Thursday, Mrs Mensa explained that the initial figure – 13,433,573 – used led to her declaration of 6,730,587, which 51.302 percent for the NPP.

But in multiple tweets, Joyce Bawa Mogtari said: “We must and should call the EC out. Since the inception of the 1992 Constitution and 4th Republic, Ghana’s EC has continued to come under the microscope of scrutiny – from all of us. And through that it has served as an excellent example for many democracies.”

She added: “This charade of a 2020 election results declaration by Jean Mensah should not & MUST NOT be tolerated. The obfuscation of facts at this time will lead us nowhere.

“The lack of transparency & daily changes to the figures it puts out, in itself is evidence of the ECs failure.”

She further tweeted: “There must be an audit of all genuine (not fictitious) result sheets, considering that the EC has itself admittedly made inadvertent mistakes it cannot explain or defend.

“Other checks have revealed that the ECs own figures do not tally. We demand accountability from the EC.”