The first presidential results of the 2020 polls declared by the Electoral Commission Chair and the subsequent correction of a mistake the election management body said the Chair made, as far as the total number of valid presidential votes is concerned, are both charades, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has said.
Mrs Jean Mensa, who is the Returning Officer of the presidential election, declared the results of a keenly contested presidential race on Wednesday, 9 December 2020.
However, a statement from the EC after the declaration, said the Chairperson “inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast”, clarifying: “The total valid votes cast is 13,119,460”, adding that the correction in the figures “does not change the percentages stated for each candidate and the declaration made by the Chairperson”.
Out of the 13,119,460 total valid votes cast, the incumbent, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), polled 6,730,587 votes representing 51.302 per cent.
His closest contender, the presidential candidate of the main opposition National Democratic Congress, former President John Dramani Mahama, polled 6,213,182 representing 47.359 per cent.
President Akufo-Addo has, thus, been given the nod to govern for a second term.
However, Mr Nketia said at a press conference on Thursday, 10 December 2020 that: “Indeed, immediately after our rejection, the Commission itself, for the first time in the history of this country, had to go back to recalculate the results and have since brought figures to contradict their earlier declaration, which they claim to be the final declaration”.
“So, let’s ask ourselves: of what value was either the initial declaration or the follow-up declaration. Which of the results do we place value on?” he asked.
Source: Class FM