Sammy Awuku, the , the National Organiser for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has disclosed that the European Union’s (EU) report supports the victory of President Akufo-Addo in the 2020 general election.
Speaking in an interview, he revealed that the EU’s stance is a true reflection of what transpired during the election.
Sammy Awuku further insisted that the 2020 election was free and fair despite the opposition’s stance and its criticsm of the EU report.
“Be as it may, we are confident that the NPP did a good job, we believe that the elections 2020 was not 100 per cent but on the balance of it we believe that the process was free, fair and transparent and we won.”
His comment follows the EU’s report describing Supreme Court’s verdict on the election petition, presented by the opposition NDC challenging the outcome of the election, as reliable.
Commenting on the issue, the EU Chief Election Observer, Javier Nart, explained that they had “full confidence in the procedure”. He further vouched for the “the legitimacy of the courts in Ghana”.
“So, the decision of the court, we accept it because we think it is reliable and acceptable and was proceeded in a normal and neutral way.”
EU report defective
Contrarily, the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Peter Otukornor disagreed with the report of the EU.
According to him, the EU report is defective and does not accurately capture the happenings on December 7. Mr. Otukornor further requested for corrections to be made to the report.
“We think the report was wholly defective, it didn’t report what actually happened during the elections”.
Countering Otokunor’s assertions, however, Sammy Awuku insisted that the absence of reported deaths in the EU’s report were “unfortunate”.
“They were regrettable and unnecessary; it shouldn’t have happened at the first place. But they do also say that has been the position of the NPP, that in all fairness we won the elections freely, fairly and it was transparent.
“The isolated incident of what happened in Techiman South and other places are issues that I know that they are still under investigation”.
EU’s report on Election 2020
The European Union has described as reliable, Supreme Court’s Election Petition verdict presented by the 2020 NDC flagbearer, John Mahama.
According to the EU Chief Election Observer, Javier Nart, the 2020 election was free and fair and competitive.
Mr. Nart, however, explained that the shortcomings also included “unregulated campaign finances”.
He conceded to the fact that the election was characterised by abuse of incumbency. Also, there were evidences of misuse of state resources and vote-buying.
“The election was efficiently organised, that they were competitive and that the processes meet a range of international standards.
The European Union Election Observer Mission has therefore called on the Electoral Commission to publish all polling station results. Additionally, he insisted they must publish collation centre results on their website in the future.
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