The Electoral Commission says it is sorry for failing to live up to its pledge to, within 24 hours, declare the results of the 2020 parliamentary and presidential election.
Chairperson of the Commission, Madam Jean Mensa says her inability to deliver as scheduled was due to events she had no control over.
Earlier, the Commission had said it had introduced more efficient measures which will facilitate the declaration of election results within 24 hours because, in this year’s polls, the National Collation Centre in Accra is only receiving collated presidential election results from 16 regions as opposed to results from 275 constituencies as has been the case in the past.
But the EC ultimately missed this deadline.
Mrs. Mensa has however cited rains and other major challenges at some collation centres which made transportation and filing of constituency results as a major glitch to meeting the timeline.
“We thought that it will be important to brief you on some issues that had arisen in the course of this work. I am referring particularly to the Commission’s inability to declare the results as planned at 5 pm today. The Commission had intended and indicated its willingness to declare the 2020 presidential election within 24 hours after the general election. However, we experienced quite a number of challenges making it difficult for us to fulfil this promise. The unexpected rain in many parts of the country yesterday resulted in a number of voting interruptions. So, long after voting had ended elsewhere, some centres had to continue which led to delays in the subsequent declaration of results,” she said at a midnight presser on Wednesday.
While showing remorse over the development, she explained that “naturally, this had an impact on our plans in the sense that our officers could not collate the results and forward them to the appropriate locations as planned. Secondly, we also experienced some challenges with the regions particularly some areas in the hinterlands, Western North to be precise. It was difficult for our officers to travel to the regional capitals and to send the results there. We express our regret for our inability to declare the results at 5 pm on Tuesday as planned.”
But Madam Mensa added that the Commission is “hoping that, in the early hours of today [Wednesday, December 9, 2020], we will receive two additional results and will thereafter be able to make the declaration today.”
Meanwhile, the electoral management body has received results from 14 out of the 16 regions, from this year’s general elections.
Out of the number received, results of seven regions have officially been certified.
Mrs. Jean Mensa, was hopeful her outfit will receive the results from the two other regions before the final declaration of the presidential results.
“As we speak, the Commission has received 14 out of the 16 regional results. We have the national collation centre where we have had representatives of the various political parties since yesterday. As the results come in, the party representatives review them against what they themselves have received from the regions and once they are satisfied that the results that have come to us from the regions are a true reflection of what they have received, they then append their signatures to it before the results are brought to my attention. As Returning Officer of the 2020 presidential election, I then certify these results. Out of the 14 results received, we have certified seven up to date,” she noted.
Source:Fiilafmonline/ CitiNews
