A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has urged the Electoral Commission (EC) in Ghana to convene a meeting of key stakeholders to address issues tied to the country’s 2020 presidential election.
The EC declared incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) winner of the 07 December election.
Akufo-Addo received 51.3 percent of the vote to defeat his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The former president got 47.3 percent of the vote and has said he will contest the results, as he accused the electoral umpire of presiding over a ‘fraudulent outcome’.
‘What we witnessed across the country from 7 December 2020 exposed a deliberate plan to manipulate and pre-determine the results of the election in favour of the incumbent, Nana Akufo-Addo’, he alleged.
Election observers reported violent incidents in the Ashanti, Central, and Greater Accra regions, with police saying they had recorded over 60 incidents on polling day.
The coalition of CSOs, which include the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), IMANI Africa, Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), noted that disagreements with the outcome of the election results should be resolved using the laid down procedures outlined by law and backed with evidence.
‘[We] condemn all acts of violence and recommend that the Security Services immediately launch investigations into all reported crimes during the electoral process and in particular prosecute perpetrators involved in the recorded pockets of violence which have led to various injuries and deaths’, they said in a statement.
‘[We] remind the leaders of the two major political parties to respect and fulfill the pledges they signed in the Presidential Election Peace Pact, which includes not just a commitment to promoting peaceful elections but also a pledge to resort to judicial resolutions to address all election disputes.
‘[We] encourage political parties to tell their members to refrain from any violence, to stay calm, and to follow the laid down procedures provided to challenge election results’.
Source: Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC)
Photo source: Bayaga Fatawu