The Electoral Commission of Ghana has said it will not allow itself to be railroaded by any political party into declaring results of the recently held presidential election.
Addressing journalists at a press conference in Accra shortly after the main opposition New Patriotic Party demanded at a separate press conference that the EC come out to immediately declare the results, Director of Communications of the election management body, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu said: “EC is in full control of the electoral process as we have been from the start of the Electoral cycle.”
“We are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that the results that will be announced by the Electoral Commission of Ghana will be a true reflection of the choice of the people of Ghana. And we will not be stampeded into a process and in taking decisions which will occasion an election petition,” Mr Dzakpasu added.
According to him, the EC has so far collated results from 25 constituencies at the national collation centre by the representatives of the various political parties have refused to sign the results slips (pink sheets) until they have “seen and confirmed the accuracy of the results so the EC has not been able to certify any of those results so commission cannot release them.”
“The commission appreciates that the results have been delayed considerably,” but “we would like to emphasise that the commission is not deliberately delaying the release of the results, the delay is the result of our commitment to fully releasing accurate and valid results for the people of Ghana.”
He said the delay is not strange since this is not the first time that results of the presidential poll have not been declared less than 24hours after the close of polls.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
