The Chair of the Electoral Commission has said the election management body cannot in anyway manipulate or change the results of Wednesday’s presidential and parliamentary polls.

Briefing the media on Thursday, 8 December around 5pm, Mrs Charlotte Osei said “the history of our presidential elections in the fourth republic in Ghana have been very close and because of that closeness, we have a duty to ensure that we take our time to collate the results properly, we ensure the process of collation remains as inclusive and as transparent as the process of the elections.”

“We want to assure you that we cannot change the results in anyway, we cannot manipulate the results, the results have already been declared on polling station by polling station basis; all we are doing is picking all those results that have already been declared and putting it together but in doing that we must ensure accuracy.

“In one polling station for instance, in one constituency centre because the results were put through a computerised system and projected onto a screen, the lines jumped and so you find that the results for one party is sharing with another party because the lines have jumped. That collation centre was vandalised even though that error was noticed and it was rectified and we got the final declaration, and, so, it is for this reason that we think accuracy is more important than speed at this point.

“The duty we owe to the people of Ghana is not to declare results quickly, the duty we owe is to declare results that are accurate and reflect the will of the people of Ghana; that is the oath we have taken, that is the obligation under the law and as much as possible we intend to live up to that oath and to our legal obligation so we want to urge everyone to please be patient, give us time to make sure that we work with the agents of the candidates and bring you results that are accurate and that reflect the will of the people,” Mrs Charlotte Osei assured the parties and Ghanaians.

Her assurance follows recriminations between the two major parties who are both claiming victory. While the governing National Democratic Congress says its candidate President John Mahama is “cruising to victory”, the main opposition New Patriotic Party said its flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo has taken a “commanding lead” with 54%.