President-elect John Dramani Mahama has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to maintain fairness, consistency, and integrity in its management of disputed parliamentary results. His comments were made in response to the EC’s decision to invalidate the declarations of parliamentary results in nine constituencies, including Ablekuma North, Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Techiman South, and Dome-Kwabenya, citing that the results were declared under duress.
Mahama criticized what he described as the EC’s selective application of its rules, highlighting inconsistencies in the way similar cases have been handled in the past. He pointed specifically to the 2020 Techiman South parliamentary results, where the EC declared the results despite reported irregularities and objections from stakeholders. He questioned why the EC had decided to suspend the re-collation process for the nine disputed constituencies while previously allowing similar issues to proceed without re-collation.
Addressing African ambassadors and high commissioners on December 20, Mahama emphasized the importance of transparency and fairness in the EC’s actions. He argued that shifting rules based on the circumstances could undermine public trust in the EC and damage the credibility of Ghana’s electoral process. Mahama also urged the EC to engage with all political stakeholders and to ensure that the electoral process is not only fair but also perceived as fair by both the public and international community.
“We cannot change the rules when it suits us. There must be fairness and justice in everything we do,” Mahama said. He further recalled that during the 2020 election, the EC had stated that when a declaration is made under contested circumstances, the appropriate venue for resolving the issue is the court, not the EC.
Mahama concluded by reiterating the need for robust safeguards to protect Ghana’s democratic institutions, stressing that the EC’s actions should inspire confidence among both the citizenry and the international community.
