General News of Thursday, 8 December 2016

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

We can’t manipulate results, stay calm – EC assures Ghanaians

The EC Chair has assured Ghanaians of a fair representation of election results play videoThe EC Chair has assured Ghanaians of a fair representation of election results

The Electoral Commission of Ghana is urging Ghanaians to remain calm as it collates and tabulates results of Wednesday's presidential and parliamentary results saying, the commission cannot and will not manipulate the figures for any particular candidate.

Following controversies surrounding the delayed declaration of the electoral results and attacks from some political parties over the EC's silence on post-electoral proceedings, the Commission held a press briefing to update the public on electoral processes underway to ensure a fair and accurate declaration of results.

EC Chair Charlotte Osei addressing the media indicated that the commission has noted with concern, the anxieties of Ghanaians regarding the delayed declaration of the final election results, indicating that accuracy is a more important factor in the declaration of election results than speed is.

"we want to assure you that we cannot change the results in any way, we cannot manipulate the results, the results have already been declared on a polling by polling basis, all we are doing is to take those results polling station by polling station and put it together but in doing that, we must ensure accuracy"

Mrs. Charlotte Osei also emphasized that the EC does not declare results collated by political parties but goes through a legal process to ensure a fair representation of the election results.

She assured Ghanaians of processes underway to ensure that the results are accurate and declared in due time.

"it is important that we exercise prudence, we ensure that the results we declare are accurate, and it is better that we take our time to make sure that results are properly signed off and collated before we declare it"