1 million ballot stuffing: Where's your evidence? - EC to Mahama

The Electoral Commission (EC) has called on the Ghana Police Service to investigate former President John Dramani Mahama's allegations that the Commission thumb printed 1 million votes during the 2020 Presidential elections in favour of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Former President John Mahama is said to have made these allegations during his recent 'Thank You' tour.

The EC, during its ''Let the Citizen Know'' series aimed at providing an update on the 2020 elections, also addressed Mr. Mahama's allegations.

''The Former President has said the EC thumb printed 1million ballots in favour of the president. This is untrue. This is a grave matter that undermines the credibility of our electoral process and should not be ignored. We call on him to provide evidence to support his claim. This is not a matter to be ignored and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate this," the Commission insisted.

They challenged Mr. Mahama to provide evidence to substantiate his claims.

''The Transparency of our process makes it totally impossible for this to happen. At the polling stations, prior to the start of the elections, the empty ballot boxes are opened and displayed in the presence of everyone, and thereafter they are sealed. There are serial numbers on the ballot papers for each region and constituency. This is made known to the Agents before the elections. Our ballot papers also have security features, so any trace of new material will be clearly visible.

Again, at the end of the poll, the ballots cast are cross-checked against the voters who were verified and issued the ballot papers. This ensures that over-voting is detected immediately. Nationwide, we had no issue with over-voting at all our 38,622 polling stations except in Savelugu in the parliamentary election where there was one and I repeat one over-voting. The transparency of our processes from the beginning to the end makes this impossible. Ballot Stuffing cannot be done-it is impossible. We call on the Former President in the interest of our democracy to provide evidence of the stuffing of the ballot boxes by the EC'', the Commission argued.

John Mahama's claims

Former President John Dramani Mahama says if, given the opportunity to assess the performance of Electoral Commission chairperson (EC) Jean Mensa from the 2020 general elections, he would score her an F.

The 2020 Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) still holds the view that the EC boss and her outfit performed poorly.

According to John Dramani Mahama, contrary to Jean Mensa’s claim that the 2020 election was one of the best witnessed in the country, it is actually the worst.

“2020 was Ghana’s worst election. If I was marking her, I would have given her an F. She is marking her own paper after the examination so she can give herself any mark she likes,” the ex-president said in an interview as quoted on 3news.com.

John Dramani Mahama added, “Tell me which election in Ghana was ballot papers printed yet one million ballot papers were found elsewhere . . . We didn’t witness this under Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. She [Jean Mensa] knew there was ballot stuffing.”

Mr. Mahama’s latest swipe at Jean Mensa follows an address by the EC boss at the ECOWAS meeting in Winneba on Thursday, October 14, 2021.