2020 election was violence free – Jean Mensa

The Electoral Commission (EC) says there was no violence recorded in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Announcing the result of the presidential elections on Wednesday December 9, the Returning Officer of the 2020 presidential election, Jean Mensa, said it serves as a historic nature for Ghana’s electoral process.

According to her, the Commission was able to achieve the said target through the high level of preparedness towards the elections.

“I indicate that, this a historic election because for the first time in the history of our country, the election went by without major incidents and occurrences. It is no wonder the BBC describes this year’s election as boring and I put that in quote. As a Commission, we thank the Almighty God for his faithfulness, we remain grateful to God. This strategy involved our entire staff, who all worked tirelessly behind the scenes, burning the midnight oil to achieve the results we witness today. Our mantra was that while the country may be on lockdown, as a Commission, we had to keep moving forward to achieve the enormous tasks ahead of us.

“And so distinguished ladies and gentlemen, here we are today. The results are evident for all to see. Indeed, hard work, determination and focus, coupled with God’s grace has paid off. Today we have succeeded in reforming our entire Biometric Voter Management System, procuring and deploying robust equipment and devices including the Biometric Verification Devices, the biometric registration kits, a user-friendly software to govern the entire Biometric voter registration and verification system, and a brand-new data center amongst others – all of which went through an international competitive tendering process.”

She added, “Today, we can all be proud of a brand-new Biometric Voter Register that reflects unique individuals who are eligible to vote. With determination and focus, we were able to prepare a Register that recorded seventeen million and twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and forty-one (17,027,641) eligible voters in just 38 days in the rainy season of Ghana. Thankfully, the just ended election did not witness issues of missing names, misplacement of polling stations among others.

“Again, we can be proud of the fact that for the first time in our history, the election was funded without donor assistance. I can assure you that we put our resources to prudent use. Furthermore, we can be proud of the fact that more than 95% of our procurement for the 2020 Election was done through an open, competitive tender process as opposed to sole sourcing and restricted tendering as was the case in the past. This no doubt ensured value for money in all our processes. At the right time, the Commission will share with you a report on its procurement processes and savings made to date.”