The Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission in charge of corporate affairs, Dr. Bossman Asare has defended the commission’s decision to recollate and declare already announced election results, citing unlawful acts that undermined the process.
Dr. Asare rejected claims by certain individuals, especially opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) politicians who have pushed back spiritedly against the arrangement.
Following the Electoral Commission’s declaration of some seats which were initially announced in favour of the NDC, party bigwigs took to social media to excoriate the commission for overt bias and acting unlawfully.
In a post on social media, NDC General Secretary, Fiifi Kwetey wrote that “electoral crimes have no expiry date” and “the time of reckoning will come” after President-elect John Mahama is sworn into office.
The party chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia had also indicated earlier at a press conference that recollation “is not founded in any laws of our elections”.
Addressing reporters at the EC’s headquarters, Dr. Bossman Asare said the accusations were unfounded, stressing that his outfit had an obligation to respect the law.
“It has been stated by some people that the recollation the commission is doing is illegal. This is because the C.I says after collation you can’t recollate. We wish to state that this is false. It is important to know that the commission cannot uphold an illegality.
“What happened at the collation centres where the collations were done without all the polling station results and where people were held to the gun and knife cannot be legal and the commission will not uphold these,” he stated emphatically.
The commission is yet to declare 2 parliamentary election results in the Ablekuma North and Dome-Kwabenya constituencies.
