Loss of lives during polls shows we are moving backwards – John Mahama

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, John Mahama, fears the incidents of election violence have eroded the democratic gains of the Fourth Republic.

At least seven persons died in election-related violence during the polls and Mr. Mahama said this showed the country was “moving backwards, not forward.”

“We are unravelling the very fabric of our democracy. We are risking the loss of three decades of work of progress,” he added in an address after filing his petition earlier on Wednesday.

The 2020 election was marked by military personnel policing urban areas and some polling centres.

In Mr. Mahama’s view, such imagery resembled the turbulent times in Ghana’s democratic history that he thought were in the past.

“When today we see armed military and militia in our collation centres and election outcomes declared at the point of a gun, for us who have witnessed our country’s journey through all its post-independence travails, we wonder if we have truly exorcised the ghost of our torturous past.”

As far as violence during the polls was concerned, six lives were lost during the 2020 general elections, according to the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF).

There were 61 recorded cases of electoral and post-electoral violence across the country.

Twenty-one of the incidents were true cases of electoral violence, six of which involved gunshots.

One other person died later on from wounds from the violent incidents.

One of the deceased was from an incident at the Techiman South Collation centre where Mr. Mahama is basing crux of his argument that a re-run of the election is needed.

The Electoral Commission declared the winner of the presidential election when the Techiman South Constituency results were pending.

But Mr. Mahama in his petition argued that if all the votes of Techiman South Constituency were added to his votes, President Akufo-Addo’s votes would remain at 6,730,413, now yielding 49.625 percent of the votes, while his would increase to 6,342,907, now yielding 46.768 percent.

He maintains that neither he nor President Akufo-Addo attained a clear majority because of the omission of the constituency from the provisional declaration of results.

Mr. Mahama is now asking the Supreme Court via a petition to order a re-run of the presidential election just for him and the incumbent, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Source: Citinewsroom.com