Perceived conflicting figures of the 2020 elections announced by the Electoral Commission since December 9, 2020 has resulted in vilifications from the National Democratic Congress and some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
Jean Mensa, the chairperson of the commission has been heavily criticized after the commission admitted to having made mistakes in the figures quoted during the announcement of the results of the presidential elections.
While the gaffe has been interpreted as a show of incompetence by the EC by CSOs like IMANI Africa, the NDC alleges that it is proof of how the elections were rigged in favour of the NPP’s Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
But Paul Adom-Otchere, a journalist and appointee of the government has come to the defense of the commission.
In the Tuesday, December 29 edition of his Good Evening Ghana show, Adom-Otchere asserted that there was nothing wrong with the figures mentioned by Jean Mensa during the announcement.
He sought to clarify that the EC chairperson, however, had it wrong with how she presented the figures.
“A lot has been said about the declaration. The issue about the declaration is that in presenting the result, Jean Mensa did not make the case for the difference between the total votes and total valid votes cast as being a difference between the total votes cast and rejected ballots. So, rejected ballot minus total votes cast gives us total valid votes cast. The percentages thereof are calculated upon the valid votes cast”.
The votes attributed to John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo, to obtain the percentages of these votes within the larger context, you do the equation against the valid votes cast which is the difference between the total votes cast and rejected ballots. So the figures she gave were not wrong. The was nothing wrong with the figures. It was the presentation that she had wrong”, the ace journalist said.
Nana Akufo-Addo polled 6,730,413, representing 51.595% while John Mahama garnered 6, 214, 889 representing 47.366% in the 8th election in the 4th Republic that had a dozen candidates.
