The errors in the Electoral Commission’s (EC) communication of the 2020 General Election results though embarrassing do not affect the integrity of the results.
That is the view of Dr. Kojo Asante, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
The credibility of the results released by the electoral management body has been questioned by a section of the public following arithmetic disparities in the presidential results.
It follows the revision of the total valid votes declared by the EC on December 9, 2020, where EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa announced wrong figures for the valid votes cast as well as the percentage of votes president-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had.
The Commission subsequently amended the error in different press statements.
The opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also used the anomaly to justify its outright rejection of the polls demanding a reversal of the declaration.
But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Dr. Kojo Asante explained why the anomaly would not affect the integrity of the results.
“If you take total votes cast which include rejected ballots, you will get a higher figure. And the total rejected ballot was about 2.2% we estimated. So I am sure the person calculating it used the total valid votes. So once you adjust it with the data, it doesn’t really affect who won for example. So those conclusions by the EC do not change with that and you can explain why that happened. If it had to do with the actual placement of the total valid votes then, you will have to raise a concern…So, it is embarrassing for the EC but in terms of the integrity of the declaration of the election, I for once is not saying we should have challenges with the EC’s declaration”, he explained.
CODEO has also said its independently-collated results of the presidential and parliamentary election are consistent with that of the EC.
“Given that the official result announced by the Electoral Commission for each candidate falls within their respective PVT estimated confidence ranges, CODEO can confidently confirm that its PVT estimates are consistent with the official presidential election results,” CODEO said.
Giving details on how elections fared across the country, CODEO indicated that the two main parties- the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had party agents at over 99% of polling stations during the election.
“Observers also reported that the two main parties (NDC and NPP) had party agents at over 99% of polling stations,” the statement added.
It advised contestants in the presidential election “to place confidence in the official presidential results as declared by the Electoral Commission.”
