1 Million Ballot Stuffing: Mahama Must Support EC - Nana Akomea Backs EC's Call For Investigation

State Transport Corporation(STC) Managing Director, Nana Akomea, has backed the calls by the Electoral Commission (EC) that the Ghana Police Service should investigate Ex-President John Mahama's allegations of ballot stuffing against the Commission.

The EC has challenged the former President to provide evidence to validate his claims or otherwise.

EC Dares Mahama

During its ''Let the Citizen Know'' series aimed at providing an update on the 2020 elections, the EC stated; ''The Former President has said the EC thumb printed 1million ballots in favour 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."

The Commission has asked the Police to take up the matter saying ''this is not a matter to be ignored and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate this".

''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 cross-checked 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," the Commission further argued.

John Mahama's claims

Former President John Dramani Mahama says if, given the opportunity to assess the performance of Electoral Commission Chairperson Jean Mensa from the 2020 general elections, he would score her an F.

The 2020 Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) still holds the view that the EC boss and her outfit performed poorly.

"2020 was Ghana’s worst election. If I was marking her, I would have given her an F. She is marking her own paper after the examination so she can give herself any mark she likes,” the ex-president said in an interview as quoted on 3news.com.

John Dramani Mahama added, “Tell me which election in Ghana was ballot papers printed yet one million ballot papers were found elsewhere . . . We didn’t witness this under Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. She [Jean Mensa] knew there was ballot stuffing.”

Mr. Mahama’s latest swipe at Jean Mensa follows an address by the EC boss at the ECOWAS meeting in Winneba on Thursday, October 14, 2021.

Nana Akomea Slams Mahama

Nana Akomea has refuted the former President Mahama's claims stressing the EC cannot rig elections.

Echoing the words of Mr. Mahama about the EC's integrity during his tenure as President of the Republic, Nana Akomea emphatically stated; ''The Electoral Commission cannot alter the results for any candidate. It's not possible!''

To him, Mr. Mahama should avail himself for the Police investigations to establish the truth.

"Everybody must support them (EC). Even President Mahama should support them because he made such claims. So, if the Police conduct investigations, we will all know the truth. But for President Mahama to level allegations against the EC without any evidence is incomprehensible because, as a former President and Vice President, to accuse the Electoral Commission - the election referee - of this means you're ruining the integrity of the Electoral Commission of Ghana and the entire electoral process," he asserted.

"If he had sent it to court as part of his case and the court had ruled it out, that settles the matter. But he making this allegation outside the court, if we leave it hanging, how do we know the truth? So, there has to be some investigation - detailed investigation - for us to find out from him how it was possible to print an extra 1 million ballots thumbprinted for one candidate," the STC boss added.

Nana Akomea made these submissions on Peace FM's morning show ''Kokrokoo''.