The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has turned down a suggestion by the Electoral Commission to close polls at 3 pm during elections instead of the previous 5 pm. EC adopted the suggestion during an inter-party advisory committee meeting which the NDC boycotted. At a press conference on Thursday, 20 May 2021, organized by the party, the Director of Elections of the party told the press that the NDC saw the proposal “baffling and mind-boggling”. According to him, “Since the 1992 elections, polls have always closed at 5PM. This has worked perfectly without any challenges whatsoever. It, therefore, beggars’ belief that the EC would want to change this time-tested arrangement and go for a poorly thought-through alternative which is bound to disenfranchise eligible voters and create needless problems for our electoral system”, Mr Elvis Afriye Ankrah pointed. Read the NDC’s full statement below: PRESS STATEMENT THEME: ASSESSING THE SO-CALLED ACHIEVEMENTS AND ELECTORAL REFORM PROPOSALS OF THE JEAN MENSAH-LED ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 20th May 2020 Good afternoon distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the media. You are welcome to the Headquarters of the NDC for this all-important press conference. The NDC has taken notice of several false claims made by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa in her speech delivered at the just-ended two-day workshop between the EC and the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) at Alisa Hotel in Accra. The purpose of this press conference is to formally respond to and expose the many unfounded claims peddled by the EC Chairperson in her speech at the program and to explain to you the reasons for our boycott of these IPAC engagements. Friends from the media, contrary to the claims by the EC Chairperson that the 2020 general elections was the best ever in the history this country and calls for the nation to celebrate some so-called unprecedented successes chalked by the EC in the conduct of the elections, the facts show that last year’s elections was one of the most poorly conducted, flawed and manipulated elections in the history of this country, a situation that has undermined the strides we have made since the inception of this 4th republican democratic dispensation. And we say this for the following reasons: The dubious handling of the printing and distribution of ballot papers and other electoral materials that led to ballot stuffing by the NPP in their strongholds and other regions. The unprecedented number of rejected ballots recorded in the elections owing largely to the incompetence and recklessness of the EC in using unapproved stamp pads instead of the approved voting ink pad that we have used in previous elections. The use of illegal Statement of Polls/pink sheets (Form 8B) that omitted BVD entries in about 7,581 polling stations, thereby undermining the ballot accounting process and the integrity of the entire results. This totally belies the claim by Jean Mensa that only 11,000 people voted by manual verification in the 2020 general elections. Widespread cases of patent arithmetic errors on the faces of pink sheets and constituency results summary sheets by incompetent EC staff in the filling of electoral forms and aggregation of valid votes. Manipulation of figures by the EC leading to a disparity between constituency collated results aggregate (13,118,640) and regional collated results aggregates (13,119,460). Padding of votes at the constituency collation centers in favor of candidate Akufo-Addo. No proper collation at the national collation center by the Returning Officer for the Presidential elections, Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa. Unprecedented cases of state-sponsored violence and killings at constituency collation centers occasioned by the reckless and unlawful conduct of some EC officials and the despotic Akufo-Addo government and in contravention of our time-tested election security arrangement. Also contrary to the claim that the International community has hailed the conduct of the 2020 general elections as Jean Mensah will have us believe, the European Union is on record to have decried the non-transparency of the collation process for the elections. So flawed was the conduct of the 2020 general elections that for the first time in the history of this country, a whole district made up of the Satrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi (SALL) communities were deliberately disenfranchised by the EC for the sole purpose of assisting the New Patriotic Parliamentary Candidate, John Peter Amewu win the Hohoe seat. Is this what Jean Mensa and her bias Commission is inviting us to celebrate? Again, the claim by the EC that an amount of $90 million was saved in the conduct of the 2020 general elections is completely contrived. The facts show that the state incurred avoidable financial losses as a result of the procurement of a facial recognition technology by the EC that turned out as a fiasco. It is therefore ridiculous and laughable to say the least, that an Electoral Management Body that has failed to pay its temporary staff their allowances, five (5) months after an election will make the claim that they have saved the nation money. We wish to entreat the public to treat this baseless claim with the contempt it deserves and wait for a credible audit into the EC’s expenditure for the 2020 general elections. PROPOSED REFORMS BY THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we have taken note of some proposals for reforms that the Electoral Commission has put forward for the consideration of IPAC. However, the first and most important reform required is for the EC to reform itself. Jean Mensa and Bossman Asare must be the first to reform and change their attitude of arrogance and bias. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I will now proceed to do a critical and objective analysis of the four (4) reform proposals put forward by the EC. Closure of polls at 3pm in 2024 Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the NDC finds the proposal by the Jean Mensa-led EC to change the closing time of polls from 5PM to 3PM in 2024 baffling and mind-boggling. Since the 1992 elections, polls have always