Parliament petitioned to look into Election 2020 outcome
The Alliance for Social Equity & Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned Parliament to look into the outcome of the 2020 general election.
It said Parliament must take up the responsibility of bringing to account and making transparent the details of the preparations and conduct of the elections which, the Electoral Commission (EC) had failed to account for.
“The elections, right from the preparations to declaration recorded a number of fundamental breaches, violations and discrepancies which eventually led to the 2021 election petition hearing at the Supreme Court,” the Alliance said.
The petition, signed by Mensah Thompson, the Executive Director of ASEPA, said even though the Supreme Court gave its ruling on the landmark case affirming the final declaration of the EC, the Commission failed to fulfil its primary responsibility of accountability, probity and transparency to the citizenry at the instance of the Supreme Court.
“Issues of probity, transparency, accountability and oversight over the elections are not the responsibility of the Supreme Court, hence the court’s decision not to allow the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa to testify in the election petition was not wrong as such the onus lies on Parliament to ensure accountability.
“Among the specific issues that ASEPA believes justifies the need for a parliamentary probe into the elections are; the EC made six different amendments to its official declaration of the 2020 elections within 12 hours after its hasty declaration on December 9, 2020.”
“During the conduct of the 2020 Elections, eight citizens lost their lives including three others at some polling stations whereas armed military men invaded some collation centres such as the one in the Techiman South Constituency, opened fire on voters who had gathered to observe the collation of results for the constituency killing five people and injuring several others,” the petition stated. –citinewsroom.com
