Former head of state John Dramani Mahama on Thursday refused to admit his defeat to outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo, re-elected for a second term as head of Ghana according to official results.
The opposition candidate refused to accept his defeat in the Ghanaian presidential election against outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo. His party had already announced that it rejected the results but the former head of state had not yet spoken. At a news conference on Thursday, John Dramani Mahama called the results announced by the Electoral Commission fraudulent and threatened to take “all legal action to reverse this injustice.”
“We have seen since Monday, December 7, 2020, that many steps have been taken to manipulate the election results in favor of the outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo, who also controls all the state’s resources and its institutions,” John Dramani Mahama said. attempts to bribe voters, on a scale never seen before in Ghana, the people understood what was at stake, and it was clear from the legally expressed results that the Democratic National Congress had won the presidential and parliamentary elections.No cheating, deception or forgery will erase this reality. “
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According to the election commission, Nana Akufo-Addo, leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), won 51.59% of the votes against 47.36% for John Dramani Mahama. Figures rejected by the opposition candidate from the National Democratic Congress (NDC). “Ghanaian voters voted for change,” he said.
Just over 500,000 votes separate the outgoing president from his predecessor. John Dramani Mahama also condemned a strong military presence used during the bill to “scare” and “turn results”.
Dramani Mahama points to the election commission
John Dramani Mahama focused his attacks on the legislative results announced by the Election Commission but not yet final. If the latter declares that the opposition and the government have neck and neck with 136 seats each, Mahama claims that his party, the NDC, won the majority with 140 seats and he claims to have the proof by stating the famous “pink sheets” These pink leaves reveal it true number of votes.
The former head of state accuses the election commission of links with the ruling party. For example, the Commission counted 1.7 million voters, for example in the disputed Ashanti region, while the results compiled by Mahama’s representatives at the polls show only 1.4 million votes.
The Election Commission rejects the allegations, but has since revised down the figures it originally announced and admitted to having made a mistake. A turn that according to her does not question the final result. However, the opposition candidate has announced that the NDC will conduct a review of all votes with a view to a possible legal battle.
Earlier today, NanaAkufo-Addo’s victory was considered fair by the Coalition of Ghanaian Election Observers (Codeo), which monitored 4,000 of the 38,000 offices across the country.
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