“It will be impossible to rig elections in any party’s favour” – EC assures

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, has stressed again that it’s impossible for any commissioner to rig the elections in any party’s favour.

Speaking to journalists at a training organised by the Ghana Journalists Association in Accra, she said the processes are so transparent the EC is often the last to know the winner.

Mrs Mensa emphasized that the electoral system has robust checks which make it impossible to embark on such a venture.

She maintained that her administration has operated under utmost transparency at every stage of the electoral process and this would not be different on Election Day.

The processes of voter compilation, balloting for positions by presidential candidates and the voter roll was made public, hitherto, confined to few stakeholders.

Critics led by the opposition NDC have constantly accused the EC Chair and her top officials of being in bed with President Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP.

But speaking at a training programme for journalists organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on Tuesday, November 24, 2020, Mrs Mensa said in jest, “To the question of being in bed with the government, I’m sure I would have had two children by now because it’s been two years and so in nine months you know…But I think transparency, transparency, transparency and that is why we tried our best to open up everything and therefore even if the President was your uncle or your father, there is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do,” Mrs Mensa said.

According to Mrs Mensa, she has had only official meetings with the president and no other interactions that should suggest an intention to steal the verdict for any party.

She said since after her appointment, “I have met the president on two occasions only and those have been official, and have been attended by all the Commission members”.

She said that the media and other organisations were playing a watchdog role by monitoring the activities of the EC.

These organisations, she said were also involved in the collation and so the 2020 elections would be fair.

“And so come Election Day, we know that the process cannot be even more open, everybody checks what goes on and it is done in the full glare of the public, the counting from the beginning to the end.

“As we speak we are just closing activities at the printing houses, and we also provide [political] parties with notices and its schedule and they have a 24-hour watch at the printing houses together with the EC staff and security agencies, 24-hour watch, so this is the extent,” She assured.

Mrs Mensa further explained that the ballot boxes were opaque and “we open them up and turn them over, and everybody watches, you can choose to stay around and watch everything, counting is done in the full glare of the public and the results announced there”.

She hinted on the watertight processes and added that “Even if the President was your father, throughout this chain, it is so transparent and so please let’s be mindful when our politicians come to muddy the waters when they try to cause unrest”.

Ghana heads to the polls on December 7 to elect a president and legislators for the next four years.