John Dramani Mahama, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says his party is not going to accept the results of the 2020 general elections, since it appears not to be fair on their part.
He noted that, the NDC party has participated in all elections in the Fourth Republic, and they have accepted defeat each time they lost.
Addressing party members at the NDC’s 28th Anniversary; Mr Mahama promised that the party was committed to a peaceful electoral process “but let nobody assume that we will accept the results of a flawed election.”
Speaking on the EC’s decision to compile a new voters’ register, Mr Mahama denounced the move, arguing the EC is creating tension in the country. He added, “never has it been during the Fourth Republic that six months to a general election, we are all unsure of what register we are going to use for the vote. It has never happened.”
With regards to the compilation of the new register, the former president said the documents the EC intends to use for the process would disenfranchise millions of voters. They also argued that only two million Ghanaians are in possession of a passport and less than seven million in possession of the Ghana cards. With the EC accepting only these documents as primary identification documents, lots of Ghanaians cannot enrol to vote on December 7.
The Commission has, however, made a provision for those without the two documents to have two guarantors who will back their claim of eligibility.
But the NDC says this is not enough. The party wants the EC to accept the existing voters’ ID card as one of the primary documents if they must necessarily compile a new one.
In legal arguments to the Supreme Court, however, the EC described the existing voters’ ID as “a fruit of a poisoned tree.”
The Commission says the current voters’ roll is fraught with challenges as established in previous cases in the Supreme Court and must be changed.