President-Elect John Dramani Mahama has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) and the judiciary to maintain consistency in their decisions and approaches to electoral matters, emphasizing the need for fairness and justice in resolving outstanding disputes from the recently concluded elections.
Speaking on the controversies regarding the results of about nine parliamentary seats, President-Elect Mahama expressed concerns over what he described as a shift in the application of rules depending on the individuals or parties involved.
“There are a few outstanding issues arising from the election. As you are aware 9 constituencies are in dispute and we think that the Electoral Commission should act in a principled manner. You cannot change the rules when they suit you and apply different rules when different circumstances exist”.
President-Elect John Dramani Mahama
He underscored the importance of applying rules uniformly, without favouritism or bias. President-Elect Mahama highlighted instances where the EC has exhibited inconsistency in handling electoral disputes.
Citing the 2020 elections, he referred to the contested Techiman South constituency, where a declaration was made amidst chaos and allegations of duress due to the presence of armed soldiers in the collation room.
At the time, the EC maintained that once a declaration was made, the courts—not the Commission—were the appropriate venue for addressing grievances. However, President-Elect Mahama criticized the EC for allegedly adopting a different stance in the current election cycle.
“This year, in the same circumstances, declarations have been made. If people have a grievance, they must go to the courts and redress those grievances there. We don’t think the goalposts should be shifted depending on who is at the other end of the stick.”
President-Elect John Dramani Mahama
Call for Swift Resolution of Outstanding Issues
While acknowledging that there is one case where no declaration was made, President-Elect Mahama urged the EC to provide clarity on the way forward, including whether a rerun or another form of resolution would be required.
He stressed the urgency of resolving these matters to ensure the integrity of the electoral process and to provide certainty regarding the final outcome of the elections.
“There must be fairness and justice in everything that we do. That’s a concern we have—that those issues will be resolved as quickly as possible so that we know what the final outcome of the election is,” he added.
The President-Elect’s remarks come at a time when Ghana’s democratic processes are under intense scrutiny. Some activists have pointed out the critical need for independent institutions like the Electoral Commission and the judiciary to operate transparently and without partisanship to safeguard the public trust.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission (EC) has been ordered by the High Court in Accra to proceed with the collation and subsequent declaration of the results of the just-ended parliamentary election in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Constituency of the Eastern region.
The Court presided over by Justice Rev. Joseph Adu-Owusu Agyeman on Friday, December 20, also ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to provide adequate security to the EC at the collation centre. Nsawam-Adoagyir is one of the nine disputed constituencies listed by the EC.
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