Former President John Mahama
A renowned Lecturer at the University of West London, Dr Da-Costa Aboagye has descended heavily on former President John Dramani Mahama for suggesting that the 2016 elections were rigged under his watch as president.
Former President John Dramani Mahama doubted the integrity of the elections which ousted him from power, claiming the 2016 polls were rigged.
The Former President left most Ghanaians mystified during his presentation last week at the Oxford University Business School Distinguished Speaker Seminar organized in collaboration with the African Studies Centre and the Oxford Africa Business Alliance when he suggested that the 2016 election was rigged.
“As I speak, I am not aware that the Electoral Commission has carried out any investigation into what compromised their IT system,” he complained, adding that political parties, as stakeholders, have not been briefed about what really corrupted the IT system of the EC.”
In an exclusive interview with MyNewsGh.com, Dr. Aboagye said, for the former president and his associates to claim that the Electoral Commission rigged the 2016 election in favour of the opposition is serious and shows the incompetent leadership Ghana witnessed under his watch as president.
Dr Aboagye further noted that the “incompetent tag” used by some Ghanaians to describe the former president was not an accident but really earned.
According to Dr Aboagye, a competent president will make sure an institution like the electoral commission put in place good systems to mitigate rigging for a free and fair election. So if the former President Mahama believes whiles President he allowed a credible institution to rig the 2016 election in favour of the opposition, then the backstops on him as a very disappointing and incompetent president ever in the history of the republic.
The former president’s claim is the most strident remark he has made about the 7th December 2016 polls in recent times, suggesting that he is still smarting from the anguish of losing power in an election he believed he was going to win hands down come what may. The elections he lost registered him in the annals of local politics as the first sitting President to lose polls after just a term in office – the cause of his persistent sulking.
In related development , a former National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress [NDC] Kofi Adams says his party has Ghana at heart – therefore, defied all means to challenge the 2016 presidential election knowing very well that the NPP won the election through dubious means.
Mr Adams was emphatic that the 2016 presidential election was ‘heavily rigged’ to favour the then opposition New Patriotic Party [NPP] led by its flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“We knew something was wrong when results started coming from various regions. Considering the tension that was building on then [in 2016], if we had challenged the results, Ghana wouldn’t have been what it is today,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show, ‘Ghana Montie’.
Kofi Adams backed former President John Dramani Mahama’s claim that the 2016 was not “free and fair” – after applauding his decision “to let go” the 2016 election for the peace of the country.
Dr Aboagye though believes that the former President as the Commander-In-Chief at the time, should have been briefed on what happened to the electronic transmission of the Electoral Commission (EC) and if the former president was not briefed and he did not request to be briefed on a national electronic transmission cyber-security issue or a comprised national electronic transmission system of an institution supervising our national elections then it further exposes the incompetence of the former president.
In fact, the former President Mahama was in the best position at the time to tell Ghanaians what he was told by the electoral commission and the security apparatus of the country because a compromised institutional electronic transmission system is also a cyber-security issue.
–Mynewsgh