By Nathaniel Nartey
Facebook: Nathaniel Nartey
Twitter: @Annertey_Nartey
The Electoral Commission has called on the Police Service to investigate a number of allegations leveled against it by the 2020 Presidential Candidate of the NDC, John Mahama.
The Commission has also asked former President Mahama to in the spirit of democracy provide evidence to back his allegations. At a media briefing in Accra, Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Affairs, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, denied more than five allegations leveled against the EC, describing them as attempts to discredit the Commission. Dr. Bossman Asare responded to allegations of thumb-printing more than one million ballot papers for the NPP Presidential Candidate and allegations that the military was used to influence the declaration of the results.
“The Former President has said the EC thumb printed 1million ballots in favor of the President. This is untrue. This is a grave matter that undermines the credibility of our electoral process and should not be ignored. We call on him to provide evidence to support his claim. This is not a matter to be ignored and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate this……The Police should investigate this as a matter of urgency due to its potential to derail and undermine our democracy, and lead to a lack of confidence in our systems and processes. The former President has alleged that the Military influenced the declaration and announcement of the election results. This is also false. It never happened”, according to the EC Deputy Chairman.
Other allegations addressed by the Deputy Chairman of the EC were on claims that the Chairperson of the EC is not ready to be accountable to Ghanaians.
“We have also noted that the Former President has called the 2020 elections the worst elections. We refute his scoring….Once again, we refute the ranking giving by the Former President and state that, on the basis of scientific evidence the 2020 elections would go down as the best in the history of this country…..we have on several occasions heard the Former President state that the Chairperson has been running away from accountability. This is false. The EC is an institution. As such, for the Former President to equate the entire institution to the Chairperson is an attempt to malign her and cause disaffection for her. As an institution we account to the good people of Ghana through the Special Budget Committee of Parliament and we have done so. And we report regularly. We do not account for individuals. We do not account for Presidential candidates. The Constitution does not permit that.”
The EC insists the 2020 General Election was the most peaceful and transparent elections in the 4th Republic and advised Ghanaians to disregard individuals and groups who say otherwise.