The presumptive presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has renewed his attacks on the Chairperson of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) and other commissioners ahead of the 2024 general election.
The former president has become one of the most unrelenting critics of the EC chairperson, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensah since losing the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking with journalists in the Nigerian Capital Abuja, Mr Mahama said one thing that struck him in his pre-election mission in Nigeria for the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) is the confidence all the candidates and parties have expressed in the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).
All the parties, he said, testify that INEC has listened and taken their concerns on board.
He said, “Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my Electoral Commission, which was once among the best election management agencies in the world.”
“The hostility of the Chairperson of the EC and her other Commissioners to one political party is legendary. How I wish our own EC can inspire the same level of confidence in all of its stakeholders.”
“Regrettably, I am not hopeful this will happen when we have an EC that has blatantly spurned all efforts by the National Peace Council to host a meeting between the Commission and the two major political parties, the NDC and NPP,” he added.
Former General Secretary of the NDC admitted the party had no empirical evidence to substantiate their claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged as they claimed in their election petition.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the robust collation machine recommended by the party’s chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo broke down only after collating five regions.
Despite not having the collated results, Asiedu Nketia said the NDC proceeded to challenge the eligibility of the elections because they were convinced the results declared by the Electoral Commission were inaccurate and that the Supreme Court would vindicate them.
Accusing Ofosu Ampofo of seemingly incompetence and disloyalty to the umbrella party in a 14-minute audio, General Mosquito as he is affectionately called, stated without mincing words that he caused them the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
He further said the embarrassing situation made astute lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata to initially reject to lead the legal team to file a petition because he said their evidence could not hold water.
“This is why when I was questioned during the election petition about my results for the 2020 elections I told them I had none. I know you heard that. I do not know how to spew lies,” he told yet-to-be-known party members at a gathering.
But Mr Mahama would have none of these and insisted that his defeat should be blamed on the EC.
In another development, the former president also accused the Danquah-Busia political tradition of conspiring with external intelligence agencies to initiate Ghana’s first coup d’etat that toppled the government of first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
“This coup was achieved through a conscious and constant campaign of falsehood and calumny”, portions of Mahama’s post read
Mr Mahama in a Facebook post to mark the 57th anniversary of the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah said, “As a former President of Ghana who has also been at the receiving end of the Danquah-Busia tradition’s campaign of slander and sabotage, I can empathise completely with the quandary President Nkrumah found himself in.”
Mahama went on to say, “In 1966, I was a young boy still in primary school. But I remember highlights of the dark days that followed the February 24, 1966 coup.”
The former President used the occasion to urge Ghanaians to remain loyal to the country’s democratic path.
He also seized the opportunity to entreat African leaders to remain true to the tenets of democratic governance.
“As today marks 57 years of that coup d’etat, I call on all fellow Ghanaians and our patriotic security agencies and armed forces to mark this day as one of reflection and to remain loyal to the 1992 Constitution as we begin the task of rescuing our dear nation from the dark pit the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has plunged us into.
I further urge all Africans to give meaningful democracy a chance, the very reason for which I am presently here in Nigeria as Head of the West African Elders Forum on an election mediation mission, as the country votes on Saturday,” the statement concluded.