Leaders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday ordered their members to pour into the street, heightening tension as Ghanaians awaited the declaration of the 2020 general election results from the Electoral Commission (EC).
The whole incitement started on election night when the results were trickling in; and they have since been holding press conferences almost every six hours to create the impression that their flag bearer, former President John Mahama, has won the election and the NPP government is trying to steal it from them
They started their first news conference around midnight after voting closed on Monday and their Director of Elections, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, started telling them they had ‘flipped’ many seats and that the New Patriotic Party was stealing the ‘will’ of the electorate.
The NDC leaders continued to hold press conferences without providing a single data to back their claims even though their opponents, the NPP, had mounted a sophisticated results tracking platform to gather their data, base on which they were confident that the electorate had retained President Akufo-Addo for another term.
Shifting Goalpost
The NDC has been inconsistent on the exact number of seats they claim they have won and are deliberately avoiding talking about the seats lost during the election.
On Tuesday morning the NDC Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, claimed that the party won 148 seats in Parliament.
Their General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said they won 141 seats and their leader, former President Mahama, claimed they had 140 seats.
Bizarrely, they appear to be quiet on the Presidential ballot and some critics have said it was because President Akufo-Addo had taken an unassailable lead which Mr. Mahama could catch up.
It has been said that for the NDC to get the 140 or so seats they are claiming, the NPP will have to lose 34 seats but the NDC does not also only need to snatch the 34 seats from the NPP, but have to ensure they (NDC) do not lose a single seat.
The provisional results showed that the NPP has lost some seats but they have also snatched 16 seats from the NDC at the same time.
Mahama Incitement
Former President Mahama made matters worse when he held a press conference on Tuesday and claimed they had won parliamentary majority but could not say anything for the votes he personally got to return as President.
He then said he was not going to concede any defeat although results trickling in showed that he could not hit the 50% plus one vote needed to win one touch, especially when President Akufo-Addo was clearly heading to a second term.
“I want to state categorically and firmly that I have not congratulated any person and no attempt should be made to steal this election; we will resist it,” he said, adding, “We thank the Ghanaian people for the confidence they have expressed in us.”
He then said “it is clear the Ghanaian people want a change in this country; Ghanaians are tired of Akufo-Addo and his government.”
Mr. Mahama said the NDC’s analysis of the results showed that the biggest opposition party had won the majority of seats in Parliament, saying, “We thank the electorate for giving us a working majority in Parliament; 140 seats in Parliament, which is a majority and no attempt should be made to subvert that.
“I have looked at the results we have collated so far and I am excited, I am happy with the results; we won in 10 regions out of 16 and the Ghanaian people have expressed confidence in us,” he said.
Resisting Attempt
Without any proof, Mr. Mahama then accused the military of being used by the NPP government to change the will of the people but said “We would resist any attempt to subvert the will of the people.” he repeated and accused the President of resorting to undemocratic means to steal the will of the people.
“Some of what is happening is unacceptable and Nana Akufo-Addo continues to show credentials that are very undemocratic; you cannot use the military to try to overturn some of the results in constituencies that we have won and, so we will resist any attempt to subvert the sovereign will of the people. The right thing must be done,” he claimed.
“We have collated our results and we thank the Ghanaian people for the confidence they have in us and we will give further details later…and our people should remain calm as we wait for the final verdict, but we are happy that Ghanaians have voted for change,” he said.
Baseless Claims
Immediately he finished, Mr. Asiedu Nketia also took the floor and levelled all sorts of baseless allegation against the government and the EC.
He repeated Mr. Mahama’s frivolous claims that the soldiers were being used to steal the verdict of the people.
Spio-Garbrah
Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, an NDC kingpin and former minister, said the EC should have consulted former commissioner, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, to guide them in the process; as if the current commissioners did not know what they were doing.
Otokunor Games
After about two hours, Peter Boamah Otokunor, Deputy NDC General Secretary, started another press conference, repeating allegations that the NPP was conniving with the EC to steal the election from the NDC.
He even went to the extent of saying that President Akufo-Addo had lost the election and should concede to Mr. Mahama and virtually instigated the party’s supporters to rise up and hit the street.
Gbevlo’s Hubris
The Director of Operations of the NDC’s 2020 campaign, former National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey, indicated at a press conference that the party will not give room for the EC to tamper with the results.
He said the party would “abhor anything that seeks to undermine the transparency and credibility of the polls.”
Haruna Iddrisu
Yesterday Haruna Iddrisu who is the NDC MP for Tamale South and Minority Leader at another NDC press conference made wild claims that the EC was conniving with the government to overturn parliamentary results in favour of the NPP
He said the NPP government was using the military to compel electoral officers to change the outcome of elections in various constituencies, asserting that “in Upper Denkyira West, they threatened the electoral officer if he declared for the NDC.”
Speaking to the media shortly after he was declared winner of the Tamale South parliamentary poll, Haruna Iddrisu warned that the NDC “will resist the oppressors rule.”
“Even in Savelugu, when they noticed that they desperately needed a few seats, they started shooting at the Savelugu Police Station. They killed one person there. We are warning the military to stop using guns to scare away the NDC supporters,” he stressed.
The minority leader said “we know that the electoral commissioner is the returning officer of the presidential elections. We expect that in declaring the results, the commissioner will give details.”
Early on, Mr. Iddrisu cautioned all stakeholders participating in the general election to desist from declaring results ahead of the commission’s declaration and urged people to respect statements from the EC.
“We will not accept those illegitimate declarations. No political party or no political person other than the Electoral Commission has the power and mandate to declare any results, including you ladies and gentlemen of the media,” he said.
He again said “we do not expect any early illegitimate declaration of results in any constituency across Ghana.”
Results of Incitement
As a result of the incitements by their leaders, the NDC supporter started amassing at the headquarters of the EC demanding that the election be called for them.
Interestingly when the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa, recently announced that should everything go according to plan, she was going to declare the results within 24 hours of voting, the same NDC led by Mr. Mahama condemned her and said she was trying to steal it for the NPP.
On election night they said they had won the election even before all the votes were counted but said the EC should not dare declare the election.
A critic said cynically that “Mr. Mahama and his NDC are just looking for the avenue to cause mayhem, because if you said you had won the election why would you not like the EC to declare it?”
By Ernest Kofi Adu