EU mission lauds Ghana's presidential run-off polls

Accra, Dec. 30, GNA - The European Union Election Observation Mission to Ghana on Tuesday lauded the conduct of the December 28 Presidential Election Runoff, saying, "the election has been generally conducted in line with Ghana's international and regional commitment". "The second round presidential runoff election has, so far, been conducted in a competitive environment with freedoms of assembly, movement and expression respected across the country," Nickolay Mladenov, Head of the Mission, said in Accra. The Mission acknowledged that even though polling procedures in 98 per cent of polling stations the Mission visited were assessed as satisfactory or positive, in many cases procedures were not fully complied with and that the quality assurances in a number of collation centres were not properly managed.

However, a high degree of transparency was maintained at collation centres.

The mission, however, urged the political parties and their supporters to await the Electoral Commission to declare the results of the December 28 runoff polls, encouraging them to submit their complaints through relevant legal channels.

"It is of vital importance that the political parties wait patiently for the results and to follow the due legal process if they have complaints," Mladenov said.

He said the EU mission would continue to observe the aggregation of results and would follow any complaints and appeal process before reaching its final conclusion.