The plot has thickened around allegations of vote rigging
by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) as the opposition
New Patriotic Party (NPP) begins to release evidence of the
inflated votes in favour of the
ruling party’s candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
On Sunday morning, the NPP Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey,
issued a stern statement indicating discrepancies between the
figures received by the Electoral Commission (EC) and the figures
of votes actually recorded at the constituencies and authenticated
by polling agents of all the competing political
parties.
Documents sourced from the NPP by DAILY GUIDE show damning
evidence of systematic vote inflation across the country as the
party readied to battle it with the EC.
For instance, in the Tamale South constituency in the
Northern Region, John Mahama of the NDC received total votes
of 37,832 but at the EC, 53,536 was
recorded, representing additional votes of 15,704 reportedly
massaged into the system.
At the Lower Manya Krobo constituency, John Mahama received
total votes of 23,520 but it was
allegedly changed to 30,183.
In the Techiman North constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region,
the NDC’s John Mahama attained 10,519 votes, but the EC recorded
16,329, an additional 5,810 votes.
In the Akropong constituency in the Eastern Region, 15,389
votes were recorded for the NDC, instead of the actual votes that
amounted to 9,638.
In the Yilo Krobo constituency, 29, 300 were recorded for
John Mahama instead of
21,772.
In the Kintampo South constituency, 16, 488 votes were
recorded for President Mahama instead of 12,890 actual
votes.
The NPP said it had in its possession, hundreds of such
discrepancies.
A similar alleged fraud of over 15,000 votes were to be
perpetuated on the NPP at the Dome Kwabenya collation centre in Accra before it was detected by
vigilant members, only for the Greater Accra NDC chairman, Ade
Coker, to say that it was human error.
In records captured from constituency collation centres as captured in the “Blue form” but now
called “Red Form”, the discrepancies appeared to have been
deliberately manufactured to give an edge to President
Mahama.
For instance, out of just 10 constituencies- Tamale South,
Lower Manya Krobo, Techiman North, Yilo Krobo, Akropong, Berekum
West, Kintampo South, Upper West Akyem, Mpohor and Yendi
constituencies- as many as 52, 483
more votes were fraudulently recorded for President
Mahama.
Meanwhile, as exponential increases were being recorded for
President Mahama, the votes of his close contender, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of
the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), was being skimmed
off.
In the Yendi constituency in the Northern Region for
instance, President Mahama received 21,668 votes instead of the
recorded 20,658. Nana Akufo Addo’s votes which peaked at 27,678
were reduced to 26,989 by the records at the EC.
Afari Gyan’s Dribble
When the NPP raised concerns about these serious
irregularities, the Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who
is retiring, ordered the opposition party to go to court if it felt
aggrieved by the outcome of the December 7 polls.
Shortly after the NPP discovered these irregularities, Jake
Obetsebi-Lamptey petitioned the EC to convene an emergency
meeting.
The meeting brought together the EC, the National Peace
Council and the two aggrieved political parties, the NPP and the
NDC.
At the meeting, the EC asked the NPP to present hard evidence
which was duly presented.
Sources told DAILY GUIDE that the EC boss was dismissive as
he asked the NPP to produce the irregularities against the correct
figures for all the 275 constituencies across the
country.
The NPP was said to have protested against that request from
the EC, arguing that it was not in the party’s place to produce all
the figures from across the country and requested the EC to
investigate the evidence it had presented before declaring the
winner of the elections.
According to the sources, the EC was generally not receptive
to the proposition of the NPP requiring the EC to critically
scrutinise the election results.
The EC boss and the other commission members excused
themselves from the tripartite meeting to deliberate on the
proposal from the NPP.
When they finally emerged, Dr. Afari-Gyan told the gathering
that he would go ahead to declare the winner.
The haste at which the EC boss was eager to declare the
winner puzzled the gathering, particularly because the 48-hour
time-schedule for declaring the elections had not
expired.
DAILY GUIDE gathered that the NPP delegation, led by party
Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, came out of the meeting extremely
peeved because the EC was not receptive to investigating the
allegations raised.
Some officials of the EC have been cited for complicity in
aiding the ruling NDC to win the elections.
According to the NPP, the President had conspired with
officials of the EC to “falsify election results”.
“The EC owe us some transparency, are they a government onto
themselves, who is the EC responsible to, Ghanaians or itself?”
Deputy Communications Director of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoah,
asked rhetorically when contacted by DAILY GUIDE Monday
afternoon.
“The EC is mandated by the constitution to conduct an
election for Ghanaian’s and it turns out that the EC has taken the
power and authority of Ghanaians and it is using it anyhow for
itself,” stated a visibly angry Mr Buaben Asamoah.
Why The Rush?
On Sunday evening, barely 15 hours after the curtains had
been pulled on the extended December polls, Dr. Afari-Gyan
announced the winner of the election. In the EC boss’s declaration,
he said President Mahama of the NDC polled 5,574,761, representing
50.7 percent of total votes. His close contender, Nana Akufo-Addo
of the NPP trailed at 47.74 percent representing 5,248,898
votes.
Earlier, the EC had said that it would announce the result 48
hours after voting closed, hence the NPP request was aimed at
working within that timeframe to scrutinise the anomalies and the
suspected inflated figures recorded from the polls.
However, the EC rushed to announce the results.
The polls closed by 5pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012. Dr.
Afari-Gyan announced the results by 9.10 pm on Sunday December 9,
2012.
Earlier, the Director of Public Affairs of the EC had
indicated that if the EC was alerted with substantial evidence of
electoral manipulations, the commission would institute an
investigation and would only ignore such investigations if the
evidence was frivolous.
The NPP is confident that its evidence is solid and would not
back down on contesting the election results.
The party is meeting today to take a final decision on it
when all its regional chairmen converge on Accra for the important
meeting.
