Don’t be deceived by Mahama’s claim of winning- Information Minister

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, has shot down claims by opposition, John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) in winning majority seats in parliament.

He unreservedly cautioned Ghanaians to disregard the assertions being propagated by the NDC led by John Dramani Mahama

Earlier, the NDC had insisted that its independently-collated results show it has grabbed a majority of seats in the next Parliament of Ghana.

“NDC has captured Parliament as we speak now and because of that, NDC will select the next Speaker of Parliament and the next First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and all the chairmen of Parliament’s select and standing committees”.

To this, the Minister of Information described it as a total fabrication and falsehood, as the NDC do not have a majority in parliament.  

“A claim that John Mahama has won parliamentary majority is false. It is important that at this point in time this claim must be shot down. I think the figures that are being collated by the Electoral Commission are clear. So please do not be deceived by any candidate, especially candidate Mahama, that they have won parliamentary majority,” he said.

Mr. Oppong, the Information Minister, pressed the public to remain claim and have trust in the EC to deliver free and fair elections.

“I will urge the public to remain claim and vigilant and to follow the Electoral Commission (EC) processes and updates that it will give us and not what a presidential candidate will give us”.

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission (EC) has expressed its disappointment in not being able to provide the final presidential results of the 2020 polls within 24 hours as it had earlier stipulated.

Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jean Mensah in addressing the media, revealed that its original plan was impeded by situations beyond her control.

“We express our regret for our inability to declare the results at 5 pm on Tuesday as planned. The unexpected rains and some of the challenges we experienced at the collation centre made it difficult to declare the result as expected”.

She further assured Ghanaians her outfit is “hoping that, in the early hours of today [Wednesday, December 9, 2020], we will receive two additional results and will thereafter be able to make the declaration today”.

As at the time of her statement, the electoral management body had received results from 14 out of the 16 regions, from this year’s general elections.

“As we speak, the Commission has received 14 out of the 16 regional results. We have the national collation centre where we have had representatives of the various political parties since yesterday. As the results come in, the party representatives’ review them against what they themselves have received from the regions and once they are satisfied that the results that have come to us from the regions are a true reflection of what they have received, they then append their signatures to it before the results are brought to my attention. As Returning Officer of the 2020 presidential election, I then certify these results. Out of the 14 results received, we have certified seven up to date”.