Dr Bossman Eric Asare
The Electoral Commission (EC) has challenged former President John Dramani Mahama to provide evidence of the wrongdoing he has raised against the Commission with regard to the 2020 general elections.
The EC has also asked the security agencies to pick up the allegations and investigate them accordingly.
Speaking at the “Let the Citizen Know” forum of the Commission, the Deputy Chair in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Eric Asare, described as untruth the claim that the EC thumb printed one million ballot papers in favour of the incumbent.
He said the allegation cannot be ignored as it undermines the credibility of Ghana’s electoral process.
Providing clarity on the issue, he explained that the transparency of the electoral process made it totally impossible for the alleged wrongdoing to occur.
“At the polling stations, prior to the start of the elections, the empty ballot boxes are opened and displayed in the presence of everyone, and thereafter they are sealed. There are serial numbers on the ballot papers for each region and constituency. This is made known to the agents before the elections. Our ballot papers also have security features; so any trace of new material will be clearly visible,” he explained.
“Again, at the end of the poll, the ballots cast are crosschecked against the voters who were verified and issued the ballot papers. This ensures that over-voting is detected immediately. Nationwide, we had no issue with over-voting at all our 38,622 polling stations except in Savelugu in the parliamentary election where there was one, and I repeat, one over-voting… Ballot Stuffing cannot be done; it is impossible,” he added.
“We call on the former President, in the interest of our democracy, to provide evidence of the stuffing of the ballot boxes by the EC,” Dr Bossman Asare stated.
Military influence
He also described as false claims by Mr Mahama that the military influenced the declaration and announcement of the elections results.
“This is also false. It never happened. Nowhere did the military influence the declaration and announcement of results. It is not true. The 2020 processes were widely participatory. The media, local and international observers all participated in the elections,” he said.
He noted that the results declared and announced at all the polling stations and collation centres were a true reflection of the will of the people.
“We call on the good people of Ghana to disregard this allegation of the military influencing the declaration and announcement of results as it is false and untrue,” he said.
On the issue of fraud, he insisted that the elections were fair, transparent, and credible, saying that had been attested to by local and international observers and the General Secretary of the NDC.
“After the declaration of the results, the NDC initially challenged the elections by stating that the elections were rigged and that they had won. But they went to the Supreme Court alleging no one had won. However, throughout the proceedings at the court, they were not able to provide any pink sheet to support their claim of fraudulent elections,” he said.
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