Force EC to account for its stewardship in 2020 polls – Parliament told

The Alliance for Social Equity & Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned Parliament to look into the outcome of the 2020 general elections.

It said Parliament must take up the responsibility of bringing to account the details of the preparations and conduct of the elections which, the Electoral Commission, has failed to account for.

“The elections right from the preparations to declaration recorded a number of fundamental breaches, violations and discrepancies which eventually led to the 2021 election petition hearing at the Supreme Court.”

“Even though the Supreme Court gave its ruling on the landmark case affirming the final declaration of the Electoral Commission, the Commission failed to fulfil its primary responsibility of accountability to the people of Ghana at the instance of the Supreme Court,” ASEPA noted in its petition.

The Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson who signed the petition said issues of accountability and oversight over the elections are not the responsibility of the Supreme Court hence the court’s decision not to allow the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa to testify in the election petition was not wrong as such the onus lies on Parliament to ensure accountability.

Among the specific issues that ASEPA believes justifies the need for a parliamentary probe into the elections are “the Electoral Commission made six different amendments to its official declaration of the 2020 General Elections within 12 hours after its hasty declaration on December 9, 2020.”

ASEPA also said, “during the conduct of the 2020 General Elections, eight Ghanaians lost their lives including three others at some polling stations whereas armed military men invaded some collation centres such as the one in the Techiman South Constituency, opened fire on voters who had gathered to observe the collation of results for Techiman South Constituency killing 5 people and injuring several others.”