NPP was giving information to journalists from their collation centre – Paul Adom-Otchere confesses

Paul Adom-Otchere, the host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV, has admitted that the incumbent NPP was calling election results to some media houses and journalists to project President Nana Akufo-Addo as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

The opposition NDC and many critics have accused the media and the NPP of rigging the December 7, elections.

According to Adom-Otchere, he was part of those who received such figures from the NPP’s collation centre which the party had set up at their headquarters.

Adom-Otchere stated on his show that he would be exploring and investigating claims by the opposition NDC that the December 7, 2020 elections were flawed.

He explained, “…The New Patriotic Party began the night of elections, we were in this studio […] and we all saw that the New Patriotic Party had set up a collation system by which they were collating the results of the election and at each point, they will send information across board. I got some of the information, I believe other journalists did. Different people got it, and they will tell you that they are at 70 per cent reported pink sheets from across the country and this is what they are seeing.”

He added: “In fact, as far as their system was concerned, their presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo took an early lead in the election collation processes. He led the system for a very long time and his lead began to dwindle a little bit towards the end and they were still confident that President Akufo-Addo would obtain a majority of 50 per cent plus one (sic), which is the constitutional requirement to have won a first-round presidential victory.”

The EC, on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, declared the incumbent President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the president-elect.

It has, however, since then changed the figures several times admitting mistakes.

After the declaration of the December 7 elections results, the opposition NDC alleged that the Electoral Commission (EC) liaised with the incumbent NPP to overturn the verdict of the people.

John Dramani Mahama, who led the NDC into the 2020 elections has described the elections as ‘flawed and fictionalised.’

Mahama averred that data available to his party from across all the 16 regions of Ghana showed that he had won the 2020 presidential election, insisting that any other pronouncement by the EC was evidence of manipulation of figures.

He, therefore, rejected the declaration by the EC.

The EC on Thursday, December 10, issued a statement admitting an error in the declared results.

The EC stated in its press release that its Chairperson “inadvertently used 13,433,573 as the total valid votes cast”.

“The total valid votes cast is 13,119,460. This does not change the percentages stated for each candidate and the declaration made by the Chairperson,” the EC’s statement said.

Analysis by pundits on social media shows that the 10 December 2020 press release by the EC was still fraught with errors.

Watch below Paul Adom-Otchere on Good Evening Ghana: