Free and fair elections exist only on paper - Dr. Otchere-Ankrah

Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a governance lecturer at the Central University, has slammed former President John Mahama over his recent statements about President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government.

The NDC 2020 Presidential candidate, John Mahama, embarking on a 'Thank You' tour, has leveled various allegations agaisnt the President and the Electoral Commision.

According to him, soldiers were used to declare the 2020 elections in favour of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in some collation centres.

He explained that the deployment of the Military forced some officers of the Electoral Commission to declare wrong results to favour his opponent, President Akufo-Addo.

He said; “We won the majority in Parliament, but you saw what happened on the day. In many of the collation centres they injected soldiers and forced the electoral officers to pronounce results that were not real.”

“But for a lot of scheming that took place, the NDC would have won the election. I do believe that we did win, but a lot of things went untoward and so even though power did not come into our hands, it does not mean we do not have the prospects of winning.”

Mr. Mahama made these claims during an interview on Global FM.

He is also said to have accused the EC of thumbprinting a million ballot papers, also in favour of the NPP 2020 Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo and further scored the 2020 elections an 'F'.

In a riposte during Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Dr. Otchere-Ankrah described Mr. Mahama's comments as "below the belt".

"I don't expect this from him," he added, stressing free and fair elections never exist anywhere.

"I don't agree with President Mahama for scoring the elections an 'F'. How do you score an election 'F'? There were indeed challenges in the 2020 elections. There has never been any elections that's free. Never! No matter what there will be some unrest. Free and fair elections, it's only on paper. We only wish for but it is not a reality!" he emphatically stated.