Inside December 11, 2020

Inside December 11, 2020.qxp_Layout 1 12/10/20 8:08 PM Page 5
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DAILY HERITAGE FRIDAY , DECEMBER 11, 2020
EC must let will of people manifest
YESTERDAY, THE Chairperson
of the Electoral Commission (EC)
Mrs Jean Mensa, declared the 2020
Presidential elections in favour of
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)
despite some concerns from the
National Democratic Congress
(NDC).
From the EC’s collated results,
Mr Akufo-Addo polled 6,730,413
representing 51.59% of the total
votes cast while his closest contender,
John Mahama of the NDC
also polled 6,214,889 which gives
him 47.36% of the total votes cast.
However, the NDC has rejected
the results of the presidential elections
as declared by the EC on
Wednesday.
Moments after the EC’s declaration,
Minority Leader and a leading
member of the NDC, Haruna
Iddrisu, said the party had overwhelming
evidence that its candidate,
John Dramani Mahama won
the election.
He said: “As a party, we have
had extensive consultations and
detailed analysis of the outcome of
the elections as announced by Jean
Mensa, the EC chair…We have
come to only one irresistible conclusion,
that it is a flawed, discredited
election and therefore we
reject the Presidential result without
any reservation.”
Mr Iddrisu explained that the
NDC believed there were attempts
to rob the party of both
their Presidential and Parliamentary
victories.
He revealed that John Mahama
had written a petition to the EC
before the results were announced
to voice his concerns over the collation.
“That (petition) was treated with
utmost contempt and that we consider
unacceptable. We also want
to serve notice that the blatant effort
even to deny us a Parliamentary
majority will be fiercely
resisted…this evening Ghana’s
democracy has come under severe
attack and needs some rescue urgently.”
“If not rescued, these attacks
will foster and grow into future
elections and that will disfigure our
track record, as a true democratic
nation,” he added.
The DAILY HERITAGE is
of the considered view that the
posture of the EC when it failed to
grant audience to former President
Mahama's petition was worrying.
What was expected was that the
EC would grant audience to the
petition from the former President
and address his concerns before
going ahead to declare the winner.
The NDC said they were rejecting
the "flawed" elections and the
paper urges the leadership to follow
all the available channels in
seeking redress to their grievances.
The EC must go back to the
table immediately and ensure that
all the concerns raised are addressed
for the will of the people
to manifest.
NPP faces tough time in Parliament
• Says Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu
The Majority
Leader of the
7th Parliament of
the 4th Republic
who doubles as
the Member of
Parliament-elect for Suame Constituency,
Osei-Kyei Mensah-
Bonsu has said he foresees a
pretty torrid time for the NPP in
the early stages of Parliamentary
business following the huge loss
of seats.
According to him, it was sad
and unfortunate that some of
the party’s best, knowledgeable
and experienced legislators won’t
return to the House.
At least 28 incumbent NPP
legislators have lost their Parliamentary
seats in the December 7
elections.
Speaking in an interview with
Host Bonohene Baffour Awuah
on Ghana Kasa on Kasapa
102.5FM yesterday, Mr Mensah-
Bonsu stated that one area that
the NPP had lost heavily which
he found worrying was on the
Finance Committee of Parliament.
“In Parliament, we do a lot of
work on finance, agreements,
•Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Majority Leader
loans and the preparation of
budget etc. One person we’ve
lost in the NPP which I find
very unfortunate is Dr. Assibey
Yeboah who was the Chairman
of Parliament’s Finance Committee.
He lost at the NPP primaries;
do we have a good replacement?
Someone we had in mind to fill
that void was Prof. Gyan Baffour
who is also hugely knowledgeable
and experienced in
finance matters but he also lost
the Wenchi seat and so he’s not
coming back to Parliament.
Another person who could
have also stepped in is the former
MP for Asikuma Odobeng
Brakwa, Effah Baafi, who also
lost at the primaries. So seriously
with the NPP fold in Parliament
on the finance side, we’ve
lost. We now have to have a reconstruct
of that side of Parliament,
who’s going to be where.”
He added: “In terms of legislation
which is one of the core
functions of Parliament, one person
who in my absence helped a
lot due to his knowledge was the
MP for Offinso South, Ben Abdellah
Banda, who also lost during
the NPP primaries hence not
coming back to Parliament. So in
terms of legislation, we did not
help ourselves as a party.
So going forward, we need to
reorganize and re-strategize in
order for us to reposition the
party in Parliament. Truth be
told, from the initial stages the
NPP will have things tough in
Parliament, but who knows, a
star may emerge among our current
set of MPs.
Except that in Parliament, regardless
of your potential, a
first-timer can’t be made a Committee
Chairman because he or
she will have to learn the procedures
to make him effective and
efficient. But nonetheless, we
have a new Parliament and we
must make the best out of what
we have.”