The Former President, John Dramani Mahama has said he is ready to testify under oath if there is an independent inquiry to investigate a claim he made that there was one million votes in the 2020 elections in favour of President Akufo-Addo.
His comments come after the Electoral Commission (EC) threatened to report the claim to the police for investigation.
Speaking on TV XYZ on Tuesday November 9, he said “That is what I want; they said we should have an investigation, let’s have an investigation. But I don’t know if the police are the best to do that. I don’t know what the police are going to investigate. We want an independent inquiry or let’s go to ECOWAS.
“ECOWAS has an electoral body, let them come and investigate Ghana’s election of 2020. I will welcome it, I will testify. Under oath, I will swear an oath and testify. I won’t run away from the witness box,” Mr. Mahama said.
He made the allegations when he addressed the Divisional Chief of Prestea-Hemang, Nana Nteboah Prah, recently, as part of his ‘Thank You’ tour of the Western Region that “More than one million extra ballot papers were printed, which the EC claimed happened by mistake but on the day of the elections, some of the more than one million extra ballot papers had already been secretly thumb-printed in favour of the NPP.”
But responding to him, Dr. Bossman Asare said at a press conference that “We see that our silence on this matter has dire consequences on public confidence in the Commission, and we want the police to investigate it,” he stressed.
“Former President Mahama has made a number of allegations against the EC and the 2020 elections. As Officials charged with the responsibility of conducting elections in Ghana, we owe it a duty to provide Ghanaians with the facts and the truth about the elections and the allegations raised. We are of the view that our silence on these false allegations could have dire consequences as it could undermine citizens’ confidence our dear country.
“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”. Dr. Bossman Asare
He further explained that “the transparency of our process makes it totally impossible for this to happen. 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”.
“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. The transparency of our processes from the beginning to the end makes this impossible. Ballot Stuffing cannot be done-it is impossible. 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. – He added
“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.” – Dr. Bossman Asare stated.
