The Alliance for Social Equity & Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned Parliament to investigate outcomes of the 2020 general election.
In a statement signed by the Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson said, it noted that Parliament must take up the responsibility of accounting to Ghanaians details of the preparations and conduct of the elections.
“The elections right from the preparations to declaration recorded a number of fundamental breaches, violations and discrepancies which eventually led to the 2021 election petition hearing at the Supreme Court. Even though the Supreme Court gave its ruling on the landmark case affirming the final declaration of the Electoral Commission, the Commission failed to fulfil its primary responsibility of accountability to the people of Ghana at the instance of the Supreme Court,” according to ASEPA in its petition.
The Think Tank said issues of accountability and elections oversight are not the responsibility of the Supreme Court, that is why the court’s decision not to allow the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, to testify in the election petition was not wrong as such the onus lied with Parliament to ensure accountability.
ASEPA is of the view that among the specific issues that it believed justified the need for a Parliamentary probe into the elections are that, “the Electoral Commission made 6 different amendments to its official declaration of the 2020 General Elections within 12 hours after its declaration on December 9, 2020″.
ASEPA also said, “during the conduct of the 2020 general election, 8 Ghanaians lost their lives including 3 others at some polling stations whereas armed military men invaded some collation centres such as the one in the Techiman South Constituency, opened fire on voters who had gathered to observe the collation of results for Techiman South Constituency killing 5 people and injuring several others.’’
“For Ghana’s democracy to flourish, it is important that Parliament exercises its oversight responsibilities and ensures that the Electoral Commission is made to account to Ghanaians,” according to ASEPA’s statement.
