EC gazettes 2020 presidential election results

The Assembly Press in Accra has gazetted the 2020 presidential election results declared by Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission who is also the Returning Officer of the presidential election.

This gives legal backing to the results as declared by the EC Chairperson and paves way for any person or group of persons interested in contesting it to do so at the law court, a source at the EC told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.

The source from the EC said the Commission was mandated by Constitutional Instrument (CI) 127, Regulation 44, Sub-regulation 11, to gazette the results, saying; “Without that, any case from a person or a group about the election results sent to court will be thrown away.”

“An instrument, which is executed under the hand of the Chairman of the Commission and under the seal of the Commission; and states that the person named in the Instrument was declared elected as the President of Ghana at the election, is prima facie evidence that the person named was elected.”

The CI stated that the instrument referred to in sub-regulation 11 shall be published in the Gazette.

The source said any person or group of persons interested in contesting the results had up to December 30, to do so.

“It is a public notice that states that there had been elections and of the 12 candidates that contested, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been duly elected as the President.”

“The process is just like a newly wedded lady who wants to change her maiden name to her husband’s surname. You go to the Assembly press and pay a fee for it to be published,” the source said.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, was elected the Eighth President of Ghana’s Fourth Republic.

Mrs Jean Mensa declared Mr Akufo-Addo President-Elect on Wednesday, December 09, 2020.

She said at the end of polls President Akufo-Addo secured 51.3 per cent of the total votes cast, compared to his main opponent, former President John Dramani Mahama, Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, who had 47.4 per cent.

A statement from the EC said the NPP secured 137 parliamentary seats while the NDC gained 136 with one independent and one constituency outstanding – Sene West in the Bono Region.

—GNA