The Electoral Commission (EC) has urged the Ghana Police Service to examine former President John Mahama’s assertion that there was overvoting in the 2020 general elections.
Addressing the press in Accra on Monday, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Affairs, rejected the report and urged the police to conduct an expedient investigation.
“The former president has said that the EC thumb printed one million ballot papers in favor of the President of the Republic [Nana Akufo-Addo]. This is untrue… This is not a matter that should be ignored, and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate it,” he stated.
Dr. Bossman said that the reported statement by John Mahama jeopardizes the country’s electoral integrity, highlighting the need of investigating the issue.
He also pressed John Mahama to present proof to support his assertion.
“This is a great matter that undermines the credibility of the electoral process and should not be ignored. We call on him to provide evidence to support this claim,” he added.
According to Dr. Bossman, such an occurrence is improbable during the just concluded elections, since the process is very transparent, to the point that all stakeholders are aware of everything that occurs at every stage.
He said that empty voting boxes were prominently displayed, and ballot papers were fitted with security mechanisms that prevent foreign papers from being snuck into the box.
He stated also that there was no evidence of over voting throughout the nation, with the exception of one seat where one additional ballot was discovered.
“The transparency of our process makes it totally impossible for this to happen. The ballots cast are cross-checked against the list of number of voters who were verified and issued with ballot papers. Nationwide, we had no issue of overvoting at all the 38,620 polling stations except in Savelugu in the parliamentary election where there was one over voting,” Dr. Bossman stated.
“The police should investigate this as a matter of urgency due to its potential to derail and undermine our democracy and lead to a lack of confidence in our system and processes,” Dr. Bossman added.
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