President John Mahama has alleged that the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is planning to dispute the results of this year’s election.
According to him, the NPP’s plan is evident in their recent attacks on Ghana’s Electoral Commission and its chairperson, Charlotte Osei.
President Mahama, who was speaking at a campaign rally in Tema as part of a two-day tour of the area yesterday, said the NPP anticipates its defeat in the upcoming polls hence, is seeking to discredit the Commission ahead of the polls.
He said, “the results of Ghana’s elections are declared at the polling station and at each polling station, every party is represented and so our opponent should not prepare the ground and create an impression for a disputed election because I can see that that is exactly what they are doing.”
President Mahama added that the NPP’s recent allegations that the Electoral Commission intends to rig the election in favour of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was part of its agenda to cause public disaffection for the commission and dispute the election results.
“They are attacking the EC. They are attacking the EC and saying she wants to rig the election for the NDC. That is because they can see they are going to lose the elections and so they want to prepare the grounds so that when they lose, they’ll say it is the EC that stole it for the NDC,” he said.
President Mahama said he was confident the upcoming elections were going to be fair and transparent.
“The elections are going to be free, fair and transparent, and the NDC is going to accept the result of the elections,” he noted.
In August 2016, President Mahama said the NPP must desist from the needless verbal attacks on the person of the EC chair, Charlotte Osei.
Speaking on a campaign platform, he said “Lately it has become fashionable for the largest opposition party to discredit the Electoral Commission. All kinds of accusations including unprintable insults hurled at the person of the EC chair have become normal.”
He said, for the NPP, it was “an old trick meant to vilify the referee [EC] and reduce the credibility of the referee in the eyes of the public when you can tell that you are losing the match”.
Some members of the opposition New Patriotic Party have accused Charlotte Osei of being unfair in the application of the electoral laws ahead of this year’s polls.
They said, the EC’s recent conduct especially in the matter of initial disqualification of some parties from contesting the upcoming polls and ligitation to justify their decision was evident the EC chair was doing the bidding of government.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
