Do police validate election results? - Kwesi Pratt asks EC over call to investigate Mahama

Seasoned journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has questioned the Electoral Commission's (EC) call on the police to investigate former President John Dramani Mahama's allegations of vote padding during the 2020 presidential elections.

The former President has scored the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa's performance in the elections an 'F' - to wit the Commission performed poorly.

“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.

He further accused the EC of stuffing 1 million ballots for Nana Akufo-Addo to be re-elected President of the Republic.

“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,” he claimed.

Responding to the claims, the EC, in its 'Let the Citizen Know' series held in Accra, stated; '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 demanded.

But to Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the police might not have any business investigating Mr. Mahama.

"Do they validate election results? So, if that is not the case, what is the purpose of this investigation?", he queried.

He argued that "from 2012 up to 2016, President Akufo-Addo insisted that the elections had been rigged but because he doesn't want chaos, he will accept it anyway", therefore asking "how is that different from what President Mahama is saying?"

Mr. Pratt however sought legal interpretations to ''what will happen at this stage if we find out that indeed the elections were rigged?''