Ghana election results: Another party backs NPP fraud claims

Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) has remained mum despite growing anger over its handling of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) on December 14 ordered its elections agents to boycott meetings organised by the EC claiming they were an attempt to cover up for electoral fraud.

EC said the meetings were for polling agents from all political parties and were organised to ensure that donors can evaluate training programmes they ran ahead of the polls.

Asante Kissi, the head of the election logistics at the EC said they believed the elections were run successfully but refused to comment on the NPP claims.

"At the moment it is all speculation, and we don't work with speculation." He said.

In my own constituency ... we had people handing out money on that very day.

But leader of the Progressive People's Party (PPP) Paa Kwesi Nduom has since added his voice to the NPP claims saying the EC's meetings were suspicious.

"I have been involved in elections since 1992 and this is the worst in terms of credibility," Nduom told [I]The Africa Report.[/I]

"In Ghana many people don't like the truth, they want what is convenient, but what is convenient is not always right for the people.

"What the NPP are doing...is the right thing to do."

Nduom's party called on the EC to introduce reforms to improve the electoral system.

"What we have now is a bit of a façade," he said.

"In my own constituency in Elmina we had people handing out money on that very day.

"Giving polling agents 50 or 100 Ghana cedis, now when you multiply that by the 26,000 polling station across the country you get our whole campaign budget.

"You can't compete with that."

Jerry John Rawlings, former president of Ghana and member of the ruling NDC - National Democratic Congress - party last week called on the appropriate authorities to launch investigations into the rigging allegations.

The NPP has threatened to challenge the election results in court after its candidate Nana Akufo-Addo lost to President John Mahama.

Akufo-Addo's advisor Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko said the court challenge was for the good of democracy in Ghana.

"If Ghana is to continue being a reference point for the hope of democracy in Africa then Ghana must get it right and must be bold enough to correct and set things right.

"Democracy in Africa must ... be primarily about those who cast the votes and not those who count, record or declare. Their expressions must only reflect that of voters. Nothing more, nothing less."

NPP says it hopes to file the court challenge by December 28 after gathering enough evidence from documents used during the elections.

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