There is possibility of errors in the collation of presidential results

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has admitted that it is possible that there were errors in the collation of the results for the 2020 presidential elections.

This was disclosed in the EC’s response to an election petition filed by the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, in the just-ended general elections.

Mr. Mahama in his petition wants the court to among other things annul the declaration of the 2020 presidential results which announced President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president of the Republic of Ghana.

The suit which is directed at the EC as 1st Respondent and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as 2nd Respondent, is seeking for a rerun of the presidential election between himself and 2nd Respondent, arguing that per the results declared none of the 12 candidates met the required threshold to be declared president.

But the EC has dismissed all the allegations and insisted the election was free, fair and transparent, praying the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition.

The EC in responding to the allegation of vote padding and erroneous calculations admitted the possibility of errors in its computations but said such errors were negligible.

“1st Respondent states that notwithstanding all the resources and training deployed and the facilities put in place, there is a possibility of minor discrepancies as a result of computational and mathematical errors made in the course of the collation of results; but these did not have a material effect on the overall results as declared”, parts of the responds reads.

The EC wants the court to throw out the case right from the outset.

“The 1st Respondent [EC] accordingly raises a preliminary legal objection to the petition as being incompetent and not, as required by Article 64 (1) of the Constitution and the Rule 68 (1) of the Supreme Court Rules, 1996 (C.I 16) as amended, amounting to challenge the validity of the Presidential Elections conducted by the 1st Respondent Commission on 7th December 2020”, part of the EC’s response reads.