The Electoral Commission (EC) will be going on Christmas and New Year break, effective today December 23, 2020 after conducting a successful general election.
EC’s Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare who announced this in a notice, indicated that the staff of the country’s election management body are expected to resume on Tuesday January 19, 2021.
“Following the successful and peaceful conduct of the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, Management has decided that the Commission will break for Christmas and New Year on Wednesday, 23rd December 2020 and resume duty on Tuesday, 19th January 2021,” the notice announced.
The EC, led by Mrs Jean Mensa, conducted the 2020 general elections on Monday, 7 December 2020.
The exercise elected a president out of the 12 presidential candidates and 275 parliamentary representatives in Ghana’s Legislature.
On Wednesday, 9 December 2020, the incumbent President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was declared winner of the presidential poll.
Out of the 13,119,460 total valid votes cast, President Akufo-Addo of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), polled 6,730,587 votes representing 51.30 per cent.
His closest contender, the presidential candidate of the biggest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President John Dramani Mahama, polled 6,213,182 representing 47.36 per cent.
NDC’s incoherence
Mr Mahama and the NDC have rejected the outcome of the results, accusing the EC of presenting “flawed” and “rigged” results in favour of President Akufo-Addo.
However, NDC’s narrative about the 2020 polls has been incredibly incoherent.
Whilst some have claimed Mr Mahama has won the election, others are insisting the election should have gone to a second round.
So far, hundreds of NDC supporters have resorted to protests across the country, showing their displeasure about the so-called “rigged” election.
Some of the supporters have been on rampage, destroying properties of innocent Ghanaians, pelting stones and burning care tyres on the streets.