Mahama scores Jean Mensa’s 2020 polls ‘F; says it’s ’worst ever’
Former President John Mahama
Former President John Mahama has scored the 2020 polls an ‘F’, describing it as the “worst ever” since 1992.
The 2020 flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) told Ohene Kwame David of Cape93.3FM in an interview on Friday, 15 October 2021, during his Thank You tour of the Central Region that a lot of things went wrong with the electoral process even though the Chair of the Electoral Commission recently said it was the best polls the country has ever had.
“How can it be the most peaceful when eight people died? We’ve never had an election in which eight people died in this country. For the first time, EC ballot papers leaked – some were found in the bush, cars and people’s pockets. It’s never happened before. It’s her own opinion that it’s the best election ever. This was the worst election ever. I’ll give it ‘F’ were I to score it”, Mr Mahama said.
Mr Mahama also noted that a lot of things did not go well at the polls.
“I won’t say we lost the elections but some things didn’t go well in the electoral process itself; some were from us and some from the way the electoral system was”, he said.
“The 2020 elections were not clean, transparent and fair because so many things went wrong”, he stressed.
Mr Mahama also said the Supreme Court did not help matters.
“We took it to the Supreme Court but the apex court didn’t listen to us because they didn’t allow the EC to answer a lot of our questions”, he complained.
“We’ve had an election petition before mine. In 2012, my main contender, Nana Akufo-Addo, and the NPP asked the EC several questions (interrogatories) and the EC answered all of them. The EC Chair at the time, Dr Afari-Gyan, mounted the dock and was cross-examined for two days.
“So, how come that with mine, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously, 7-0, that the EC should not answer my interrogatories? We were also denied access to information from the EC by another 7-0 ruling. A third 7-0 ruling also said Mrs Jean Mensa reserved the right not to mount the witness box”, he noted.
“So, we accepted the Supreme Court judgment for peace to prevail. The way the judgment was arrived at was unconstitutional – it’s not according to the rights freedoms of Ghana’s Constitution. It seemed as though the court had predetermined the judgment”.
“So, some things did not go well in the elections. We caught people with ballot papers in their pockets. So, it’s one of the worst we’ve had since 1992. We’ve seen the works of Afari-Gyan and Charlotte Osei. The EC has its responsibilities just as the parties but you have to trust that the EC will its part”.
Source: classfmonline
