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General News of Monday, 4 January 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Asiedu Nketia fingers top EC officials in Techiman South chaos

General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia General Secretary of NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress has alleged that there were multiple attempts by the top hierarchy of the Electoral Commission to manipulate the results of the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Speaking on Joy News, Asiedu Nketia claimed that the top brass of the EC exercised undue influence in the elections and made several attempts to alter the result of the polls.

He claimed that Returning Officers in some constituencies were under huge pressure to change the results.

Without verifiable evidence, Asiedu Nketia cited the Director of Electoral Services at the EC as one of such EC officials who made attempts to subvert the will of Ghanaians.

In an allegation that cannot be authenticated by this site, Asiedu Nketia said that the Director Elections at the EC ordered the Returning Officer in the Techiman South constituency not to release the collation sheets to the NDC.

Asiedu Nketia said that he has more than enough evidence to support this claim of his and is willing to prove it at any court.

He, however, praised some Returning Officers, particularly that of Upper Denkyira West for standing his grounds.

“At some places there was so much pressure. At Upper Denkyira West there was pressure on the Returning Officer and I salute him for not yielding to that pressure. There was pressure from the commissioners at the head office. There is a Director of Elections in this country, he was calling and instructing them”.

“In fact in this Techiman South case, he called and said they should not release the collation seat for us. I can prove this allegation I’m making. So, we can’t run away from the fact that the EC at the national level tried to influence this election and influence the decision of returning officers.

Asiedu Nketia also said that the EC and the governing NPP devised a strategy that it used to rig the polls.

“The modus operandi of the EC and government has been that when NDC is heading towards victory in a particular constituency, then somehow the collation is stopped or delayed and the returning officer will come and say that I have instructions from above to stop collation. So whiles there is a stand-off they will be planning what else to do and by the time you realize there is some confusion and they will come and declare the winner,”, he said.

The Techiman South seat is one of the most contested seats in the recently-held polls.

Despite the EC calling the seat for the NPP, the NDC maintains that its candidate won the seat and will not accept the result from the EC.