The Supreme Court has dismissed John Dramani Mahama’s motion for Jean Mensa the EC Chairperson to accept errors in the election declaration of the December 7, 2020 general elections. Motion for leave filed by the lawyers representing NDC John Dramani Mahama in the election petition case to serve interrogatories on the Electoral Commission (EC). Mahama was seeking to compel the EC to provide answers to some questions known in legal parlance as interrogatories. In law, interrogatories are a formal set of written questions propounded by one litigant and required to be answered by an adversary in order to clarify matters of fact and help to determine in advance what facts will be presented at any trial in the case. Some of the information Mahama’s legal team led by Tsatsu Tsikata was seeking answers to included the manner in which the results of the 2020 presidential polls were transmitted and the level of involvement of the National Communications Authority (NCA) in the process. But both the lawyers for the Electoral Commission and President Nana Akufo-Addo opposed the application. They argued that John Mahama and his legal team were using the “back door” to seek further information from the EC that were not captured in their petition. Mr. Akoto Ampaw, the lawyer for the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, described the application as a “fishing expedition”. The Supreme Court in a unanimous decision dismissed the application. According to the apex court, the interrogatories were irrelevant to the case. However, it set tomorrow, Wednesday, January 20, 2021, for case management. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093.
Dismiss the petition, the petitioner didn’t challenge all election conducted throughout the 38,622 polling stations– EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has said that the election petition filed by the NDC’s John Dramani Mahama lack basis. The Commission has served notice of its intention to urge the Supreme Court to dismiss the matter immediately than allowing goes through the mandatory 42 days. John Dramani Mahama who contested on the ticket of NDC is in Court asking that it annuls the election results that saw as winner of the 2020 election . According to Him, Mr. Akufo-Addo is a beneficiary of EC arithmetic errors. The EC is named as a defendant in the petition as required by law. Lawyer for the Commission, Justin Amenuvor has filed a 13-paged response on the petition. He argues that the EC Chairperson in her declaration inadvertently read out the figure representing the total number of votes cast as the total number of valid votes and the percentage of Mr. Akufo-Addo as 51.59 instead of 51.295%. This, the Commission says, it subsequently corrected insisting it did not affect the overall results declared. On Techiman South which Mr. Mahama’s argues if he obtained all votes, the NPP’s Akufo-Addo will end up with less than 50% plus one, the EC says the votes (results) it obtained from its officials do not support this view. “1st Respondent states that the petition ought to be dismissed also because the Petitioner does not challenge the validity of the election conducted throughout the 38,622 polling stations and the 311 special voting centres in the country, or contest the lawfulness of votes obtained by any of the parties to the election”. However, this result the EC says has been available even before John Mahama filed his petition to the Apex court. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093.
Journalist and EC director give different stories on bloated presidential result from Eastern Region
More contradictory reports continue to emerge, further putting the credibility of the 2020 election and the declared results in doubt, especially in the case of the Presidential result declared from the Eastern Region by the Electoral Commission (EC). But the account of a Daily Guide reporter, Alhaji Daniel Bampoe, which is in sharp contrast to that of Dr. Serebour Quaicoe, who is the Director Electoral Services for the Electoral Commission are most striking and leaves many in shell-shocked. While, the journalist said he was informed by the Returning Officer in the Eastern Regional office of the EC, Madam Faith Amedzake that the fresh numbers came from the Ayensuano Constituency of the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region, the EC’s Director, Electoral Services, has explained the increment was due to the addition from the Asuogyaman constituency of the Asuogyaman District. But The Herald’s investigations revealed that President John Mahama of the NDC polled 24,470 of the valid ballots cast in Asuogyaman in the Presidential Election, when President Nana Akufo-Addo of the NPP obtained 22,232 votes. The Ghana Union Movement’s candidate, Christian Kwabena Andrew got 22. The vote that changed the result from Eastern Region, therefore, could have not come from the Asuogyaman Constituency as claimed by Dr. Serebour Quaicoe in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday, because John Mahama had won in the Asuogyaman constituency by 2,238 votes more than President Akufo-Addo. Faith Amedzake at a press conference, had announced that President Akufo-Addo got 729, 146, while John Mahama, bagged 454,176 from 1,264,827 votes cast. This result tallied with the numbers on the pink sheet. However, the result mysteriously changed at EC headquarters with certified results declared for candidate Akufo-Addo 752, 061, while John Mahama’s also changed to 470, 999 from 454,176. Meaning the pink sheet as declared at the regional collation center and the certified results published by the EC, are not in agreement. From the certified results, Nana Addo’s votes increased by 22,915, while Mahama’s votes also increased by 16,823. In the end, Nana Addo makes a net gain of 6,092. But two accounts have emerged on the different numbers and Alhaji Bampoe, in a Facebook post took on all those, including the opposition NDC that they were wrong in accusing the Eastern Regional EC boss of changing the figures of the Presidential Election. According to the Daily Guide reporter, the EC Regional boss at the Koforidua Regional Office after addressing the media gave out the certified results of the Presidential results to the NDC and NPP Reps, which President Akufo Addo had; 729,146 and former President Mahama, also had 454,176 votes. But “My checks confirmed that the Eastern Regional NPP Research Officer, Kofi Osei-Adjei later detected that the EC mistakenly didn’t add all the figures of Presidential Results from Ayensuano to both parties”. “When I verify from him, he said he quickly drew the attention of Baba Jamal Konneh the NDC rep about it that a figure of 16,823 has been deducted from that of Mr Mahama and a total of 22,915 also deducted from the President’s votes, but Baba Jamal, said he doesn’t care since it doesn’t affect them”. “The NPP rep then went to the EC who later added the Ayensuano missing figures to both parties, hence issuing new certified results. The NDC reps were not there to sign the new certified results. This makes the initially certified results given to the parties a total of 1,264,872 votes as the certify votes from the Region”. Initially, President Akufo Addo, had 729,146 votes, but after the Ayensuano own of 22,915 was added it jumps to 752, 061 same as the 16, 823 verses was added to that of the NDC and it jumps from 454,176 to 470,999. So if the NDC is claiming that the EC has added some figures to that of President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo – Addo, after checking from the EC and the NPP rep, this is what I gathered with the attached proves”. Alhaji Bampoe, was reacting to a Facebook post by Kevor Mark-Oliver, the Eastern Regional NDC Secretary that the EC had changed figures, insisting that the Regional EC officials had confirmed to – Daily Guide reporter- that the Ayensuano figures change the total valid votes. Kevor Mark-Oliver had written “About the Eastern Region this is what happened. All collation was completed and agents including NDC signed at 6.45pm. Copies were given to the parties (Our copy displayed). Same was announced (in the video displayed). This result gave NPP 58%, NDC 37% and others 5%. After everybody was gone, The EC fax a new declaration sheet signed at 9.37pm, by only NPP, GUM and PPP to Accra (also displayed here) that sorts to increase each party’s vote but with greater increase for the NPP. You see the Mess the EC is plunging all of us into?? Attached is a video evidence of the declaration by the EC returning officer, the original pink sheet and the fake pink sheet the EC is now using”. But according to Alhaji Bampoe, Baba Jamal Konneh of the NDC who had left the Eastern Regional EC office in Koforidua after the initial declaration of the result by the Regional boss, was given the certify results and left. But Kevor Mark-Oliver, quickly fired back at Alhaji Bampoe’s claim saying “Outright cover-up!! And the media didn’t know about it? We were all there when all 33 constituencies were announced and collated!! How did Ayensuano get missing? This clever way of rigging won’t help anybody!! The Herald noted that the second result declared by the EC, had signatures of Nana Oteng Akuffo-Akoto, signing as the Polling agent for Nana Akufo-Addo, while Yeboah Benjamin signed for Christian Kwabena Andrew of GUM with one Amos Nkanssah, who appended his signature for and on behalf of Bridgett Dzogbenuku of the PPP. All other Presidential candidates, including John Dramani Mahama, had their portions unsigned on the new form containing the different result. Interestingly, the handwritings of the names of the fresh results
All Options Are On The Table, John Mahama Has Not Encouraged Anyone To Go Onto Street—Inusah Fuseini
The outgoing Member of Parliament for Tamale Central Hon. Inusah Fuseini has told Apexnewsgh.com in an exclusive interview that all options are on the table for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to regain the will of the people. “All options are on the table, we are particularly presently reviewing all the pink sheets, we are reviewing all the documented instruction of the Electoral Laws of this country, and those doing that are our lawyers and they will advise on the appropriate cause of action. Like I have said and I would say again to you, that nobody, and I repeat nobody has a duty to accept the results or outcome of a flawed election. So, it is within our right to reject the results. Recent happenings at the Electoral Commission even vindicates our position. The Electoral Commission publicly declared Nana Akufo Addo President 2 days ago, and in less than 24 hours, the figures that were the subject matter of the declaration were changed and the figures keep changing at the Electoral Commission. The EC in the first correction they did to the figures they publicly announced as figures for the election, they said that they had inadvertently used. How can a commission set up for the purposes of collating election results come out with that excuse of inadvertent?” He believes, something fundamentally wrong is happening to the country’s electoral processes. And it is in the interest of all democratically-minded persons in the country to audit the outcome of the results to find them through the will of the people. “If we do an audit of the outcome of the result, it will give us the realistic and accurate appreciation of where and will of the people is moving towards, it will also give us an accurate and realistic figure of how the region voted because every vote counts.” Responding to the protest and burning of tyres witnessed in some parts of the country by some party supporters and some aggrieved followers of John Dramani Mahama, Mr. Fuseini said, John Dramani Mahama has not sanctioned anyone to go onto curse any havoc because he believes in the country constitutional mandate. “John Dramani Mahama made it clear, he stated categorically that the party will not accept the results, he did not go ahead to declare himself president of the country, because he is a law-abiding citizen of this country. He said all the options are on the table, he only said that we are reviewing the outcome of the elections and in due course, we will take action. John Dramani Mahama has not encouraged, motivated, or asked people to go onto the street and demonstrate, he has not said that. Mind you, it is the outcome of the presidential as well as some constituencies in the parliamentary elections that are at stake. Even though I am not the official spokesperson for John Dramani Mahama, I can tell you as a matter of fact that John Dramani Mahama has not asked people to go onto the street.” However, he pointed that the reason why the NDC will not accept the results declared, is because they have wasted time, energy, and resources, but only the for EC to procured the election for President Nana Akufo Addo he told Apexnewsgh.com Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: EC Official in Police Custody over President Akufo Addo’s missing…
Information reaching Apexnewsgh.com has it that one of the EC officials in the Bawku Central Constituency is currently in the hands of the Police to undergo an investigation as a result of the missing picture of the NO1 candidate Akufo Addo. As at the time of this publication, Apexnewsgh.com cannot confirm the motive behind such action whether is a mistake from the source or a calculated attempt by the suspected EC official to cause some kind of election irregularities in the area. According to the Upper East Regional EC Director William Obeng Adarkwa who spoke to confirmed the incident to Apexnewsgh.com. He said the incident happened in one polling station and the lady has been discharged from her duty as she is currently at the police custody for investigation. He said the situation wasn’t a general phenomenon as speculated by people, adding that it was only 2 ballot papers that were seen with such problems. The incident occurred in Bawku Central Constituency at Alhaji Salaam Grinding meal polling station. Meanwhile, Apexnewsgh.com is learning that a similar thing was witnessed in Bongo Constituency where Ayinbisa Peter of the NPP and Edward Bawa of the NDC are knocking horns. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
JUST IN: Urgent public announcement from EC
Apexnewsgh.com has captured an important public announcement for eligible voters who in one way or the other lost their voter Identification card. Here is the good news for you. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: Do not be swayed by their partisan and ….- Senior Lecturer to Journalists
A Senior Lecturer and Media Consultant to the Ghana Journalist Association, (GJA), Dr. Bonnah Koomson has advised journalists not to be swayed by their partisan and ideological affiliation to mislead the public with inaccurate and biased election reportage. He intimated that in as much as media practitioners are not barred to belong to a political party, that legitimacy should not in any way be compromised as they are duty-bound to sustain the country’s prevailing peace and stability through balanced reportage. Dr. Koomson advised on a day media engagement on election reporting jointly organized by the GJA and the Electoral Commission. In all about 30 journalists drawn from the Northern, North East, Upper East, and Upper West Regions attended the training workshop. They were schooled on the GJA guidelines on election reporting as well as electoral laws and preparations among other topical electoral issues. For his stressed that per the GJA guidelines on election coverage, Journalists are mandated to cross-check every piece of information that they receive and be fair to all subjects of the news. He acknowledged that journalists can monitor election results and inform the public with provisional results, but warned that anything short of ethical reporting amounts to an electoral offense punishable by law. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
UER: Make sure you choose a representative to be part of …..- EC Director
The Upper East Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) William Obeng Adarkwa has urged all political parties to make sure they chose a representative to be part of the District Inter-Party Advisory Committee (DIPAC) that is to be formed. Speaking at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting (IPAC) to brief representatives of the political parties, the media, and security services, he encouraged the political parties to elect credible members to the District Inter-Party Advisory Committee. Addressing the Committee, Regional Director assured that, the EC will work in collaboration with IPAC to increase awareness on the modalities in the electoral regulations as well as guide party agents in the execution of their role for sanity to prevail at the voting centres. Through IPAC forums, political parties participated in key electoral processes such as voter registration, the development of the Election Code of Conduct, and the procurement of electoral materials. This has resulted in the Electoral Commission largely succeeding in building confidence and achieving credible improvements in electoral management, leading to the conduct of four successful general elections with few complaints from the participants. The IPAC Meeting aimed to give a briefing on the preparation put in place so far by the EC regarding the voting exercise and the expected conduct of the various political party representatives before, during, and after the elections. It also created an opportunity for the party representatives to express their satisfaction or otherwise over voting material received so far by the EC in the region, their safe custody, and their subsequent dispatch to the various polling stations with few days to the polls. BACKGROUND In the 1992 founding elections, the opposition parties disputed the presidential election results and subsequently boycotted the parliamentary elections, which were held separately. There were a few pockets of violence around the country. In the interests of peace and stability, the Commonwealth Observer Group recommended dialogue, even if it was informal but the initial NDC-NPP dialogue failed because of deep mistrust between the two parties and suspicions about the electoral process. In March 1994 the Electoral Commission created the Independent Party Advisory Committee, an informal and non-statutory body comprising representatives of political parties and of the Electoral Commission. The main functions of IPAC include serving as a channel of information for the commission and the parties and to enable them to discuss all aspects of the programme and activities of the commission with parties and donors. It is to ensure that parties and donors make an input into the management of the electoral process and, at the same time, bring out their concerns for general discussion; to facilitate regional, district, and constituency level IPAC meetings. The Electoral Commission, with donor support, also embarked on a comprehensive programme of reforming the electoral process and enhancing its credibility. Although IPAC decisions are not binding on the EC, it has served as a forum for generating proposals for electoral reform and has succeeded in building trust in the electoral process, especially among political parties. Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
Don’t worry EC won’t rig 2020 elections, it is just incompetent – Franklin Cudjoe
President of think tank, IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has said that claims that the Electoral Commission of Ghana intends to rig the impending election for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) are untrue. According to Mr Cudjoe, the Commission is just frighteningly incompetent and good at being evasive. “I also do not believe the Electoral Commissioners are scheming with the government. They are just frighteningly incompetent and good at being evasive,” he said in a post on Facebook. His comments come at a time that the opposition has said there is a clear indication that the government and the EC are in bed and the Commission will rig the election in favour of the governing NPP. The leader of the NDC John Dramani Mahama has consistently criticised the leadership of the Commission and have said that the Commission does not give him an assurance of handling a credible election in 2020. Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission at training for media personalities has said that it cannot rig the 2020 election and has assured the general public that it will not tamper with the outcome of the election. MyNewsgh Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications
2020 Special Voting: 5,947 to vote in Upper East Region
Out of 660,181 registered voters in the Upper East Region, a total of 5,947 voters will take part in the 2020 Special Voting on Tuesday, December 1. They include the election officers, security agencies and the media practitioners who would be working on December 7. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Bolgatanga, Mr Worlanyo Mensah Tegah, the Deputy Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) disclosed that the special voting would take place in all the 15 district offices of the Commission, however, Bolgatanga Central would be divided into two making the total voting centres for the special voting 16. Breaking the statistics down, the Deputy Regional Director noted that Bolgatanga Central, which would have two polling stations for the special voting had 416 and 415 voters respectively while Navrongo Central had 622. A total of 739 would be voting in Bongo, 529 in Bawku Central, 157 in Binduri, 105 in Bolgatanga East, 393 in Builsa North, 156 in Builsa South, and 543 in Chiana-Paga. The rest include: 106 in Garu, 565 in Zebilla, 167 in Tempane, 533 in Pusiga, 465 in Talensi and 36 in Nabdam. Mr Tegah disclosed that 1,496 polling stations would be used on December 7, for the elections and the directorate had received all the election materials and added that the Commission was prepared to deliver on its mandate on the election days. He disclosed that some election officials had already received training while a few more were undergoing orientations. He said measures were in place to ensure that all the prescribed protocols to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic were strictly adhered to and added that COVID-19 ambassadors had also been trained in that regard. Mr Tegah, therefore, urged the public to cooperate effectively with the election officials and the security agencies on the elections to ensure a peaceful and violence-free election. He further warned the youth not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to foment trouble on the Election Day and added that the law would deal with any miscreants who tried to disrupt the conduct of the elections. GNA Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications









