2020 Election: NDC’s ‘General Mosquito’ questions impartiality of EC Chairperson
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has raised concerns over the posture of the Electoral Commission (EC) towards concerns raised by the various political parties after the 2020 elections.
The party said the Commissions has treated and continues to treat the NDC unfairly especially in reacting to issues the party have concerning the recently held elections.
In an interview on the Point of View on Citi TV, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia said, “the EC has not treated the NDC fairly. It has not been impartial in the elections. When you have issues with elections, there are ways to address them. The EC after collating and declaring results in the Banda constituency granted the NPP its request for re-collation days after.”
“This same EC, in the same elections, is refusing to grant the NDC’s request for re-collation. We even go-ahead to present a petition to the Commission and it closes its doors and runs away, in an attempt not to even accept our request for re-collation. This was even after the constituency had sent the same request. What story does this tell about the EC?” he queried.
The NDC scribe indicated that the party had to resort to sending their petition via mail to the regional EC.
“We initially tried to send the petition to the returning officer of the constituency, Sampson Ofori Gyamfi, and he vacated his office in order not to be available to receive the petition. So we had to go to the post office, to do it by courier, which he received and signed. But no action has been taken as of now.”
“We do not practice a federal system where we can argue that the ECs in the various states are different. In our case, all the regional offices take instructions from Accra. So if one party goes for re-collation after the declaration in a constituency and is granted, and in another constituency where there was disagreement and another party requests for same is denied, then the EC is clearly not applying the rules fairly.”
Police officers stationed at the EC on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. stopped the NDC parliamentarians from accessing the premises of the Electoral Commission (EC) to present a petition stating their challenges with the recently held national elections and demanding the immediate collation of the 2020 Techiman South Constituency results.
The NDC insists that its parliamentary candidate, Christopher Bayere Baasongti is the legitimate winner of the Techiman South constituency seat in the just-ended parliamentary elections.
The party says it won that election by 293 votes.
Although the EC has declared the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, the winner, the NDC said the Commission’s declaration is flawed and illegal.
Mahama accuses Akufo-Addo of conniving with Jean Mensa to keep Techiman South seat for NPP
The Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has accused the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa of conniving with President Akufo-Addo to keep the Techiman South parliamentary seat for the and the NPP in a bid to secure a majority in the next parliament.
John Mahama made the statement in a Facebook post reacting to the prevention of NDC MPs by police officers from petitioning the Electoral Commission over the results of the Techiman South parliamentary elections.
He said the recent incident is surprising and unexpected for a democracy such as Ghana’s.
“The conduct of the Electoral Commission (EC), with the tacit support of the incumbent President, Nana Akufo-Addo, using security personnel acting capriciously even towards Members of Parliament is not something anyone could have envisaged in our beloved country in the course of our 4th Republic,” he said.
