Advertisement

Evidence creates further doubts on elections - Nana Akomea


The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, has stated that the Electoral Commission (EC) now has the responsibility to explain to the Supreme Court the different figures it gave for the total number of voters on the electoral roll.

The EC initially announced that 13,917,366 voters were registered for the election, but that figure increased to 14,158,890 after the election.

In a petition to challenge the results of the 2012 elections as declared by the Electoral Commission, the Presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and the NPP Chairman, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, said the EC must explain to the court how 241,524 voters were added to the electoral roll without the knowledge of the political parties.

In its response, the EC said after the conduct of registration of foreign service officials, students abroad on government scholarship, other Ghanaians working abroad in international organisations and the late registration of service personnel returning from international peacekeeping duties, the total number of registered voters increased to over 14 million.

The petitioners, who were not convinced as to how the registration of the above-listed individuals could amount to 241,000, filed interrogatories requesting the EC to furnish them with the total number of voters in the foreign missions.

In its second response, the EC gave the total number of voters abroad as 705 which fell far short of the 241,524 gap.

It, however, added two new categories, insertions made at 400 registration centres and the EC’s District Offices of the names of persons who claimed to have voter ID cards, but had been inadvertently omitted and secondly date recovered from damaged registration machines and back-up on pen drives as reasons for change in the total number of registered voters.

Speaking on a radio programme last Saturday, Nana Akomea said the responses by the EC raised a lot of concerns.

He said on the next adjourned date the EC would have to explain the “huge gap” in its own figures it provided to the public.

He said several other auxiliary evidence gathered so far showed massive irregularity in the 2012 elections.

But in a reaction, Mr Ras Mubarak, who is a member of the government’s communications team, said the NPP could plot all they want, grin all they want, “John Mahama will remain the president of Ghana for the next four years.”

He said the NPP’s decision to go to court was a clear contradiction to the flag-bearer’s commitment to accept the results of the 2012 general election.

Mr Mubarak said the NPP were just sour losers who should give Ghanaians a break. 

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |