Mahama urges EC to live up to expectation …as Commission backtracks on directive to bar political party observation
The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the December 2024 polls, John Dramani Mahama, has cautioned the Electoral Commission (EC)’s leadership “to live up to its expected mandate and stop working in the interest of the ruling party”.
In a Facebook post on Monday, the former president said the earlier decision by the election management body to bar political party agents from observing the ongoing voter transfer points to only one conclusion; to give the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) electoral advantage in the pending general election.
“The Electoral Commission’s decision not to allow agents of political parties to observe the ongoing voter transfer exercise points to only one reason, the EC’s avowed determination to aid the ruling NPP in stealing the outcome of the 2024 elections.
“But as I have continued to repeat, and did the past weekend in Tongo, this collusion between the EC and the NPP will not work. They will fail,” Mr Mahama said.
The former president said he was not surprised that the NPP and the EC quickly reversed a collective decision taken at an IPAC meeting to have political party agents present at the district offices for the transfer exercise.
“The NPP knows and internally admits that it will lose the 2024 presidential elections. We also know that, as a last resort, it seeks to deploy gerrymandering during this voter transfer period to improve its chances in the parliamentary elections in the erroneous belief that it may rely on that to affect its presidential votes.
“Again, they will fail because that strategy will not work. We have in our possession a long list of constituencies in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions and selected places in Greater Accra and other regions where the NPP is seeking to transfer thousands of voters from their strongholds to offset the NDC’s gains in constituencies we control,” he alleged.
The EC, meanwhile, has backtracked on the decision to shut out party agents in the transfer to f votes.
It explained that the decision to bar political party participation was as a result of threats to the country’s peace stemming from violent clashes at some district offices of the Commission.
In a statement issued in Accra on Tuesday and signed by Fred Tetteh, Deputy Director, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the EC, the Commission said the U-turn was as a result of the concerns raised by some stakeholders.
“Following internal discussions and in considerations of the concerns of some of the stakeholders, the Commission has decided to rivet its decision made at IPAC and directed its officers at the districts to allow agents of political parties to observe the transfer of votes exercise with effect from June 5, 2024,” the statement said.
The statement further urged the agents of the parties to abide by the rules and refrain from any form of interference which could lead to violence as witnessed in the last few days.
The Commission said it would not hesitate to request the withdrawal of agents who disrupt the process.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
