John Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama is agonizing over his defeat in the 2020 elections, for the second time to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
He said his defeat to the president was very painful to him.
According to him, he has learnt his lessons after losing the 2020 elections and would put all measures in place to win on the ground and avoid going to the Supreme Court for redress coming 2024 general polls.
Mr. Mahama who was addressing the party executives and supporters in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, as part of his “Thank You” tour stated, “That lesson has been painfully learnt and shall not be forgotten. Elections are won or lost at the polling stations and collation levels and doing everything right, not at the Supreme Court”.
However, it is not the first time Mahama is drumming home the need to police ballots after his defeats.
After suffering the 2016 humiliating defeat, Mr. Mahama addressing the party members at separate durbars at Agona Swedru, Gomoa-Obuasi, and Dawurampong as part of his four-day tour of the Central Region, expressed doubts about the conduct of the December 7, 2016 polls.
According to him, he would win convincingly only if the elections were conducted in a free and fair manner.
He said “We are determined and the EC or any institution should not try to subvert the will of the Ghanaian people. We have drawn the Commission’s attention to the many instances of infractions and actions that have not satisfied us.
“While we are expecting that the EC will live above reproach, I want to assure you all, that the NDC is well-prepared, and we will police the ballots from all polling stations through the constituencies to the regional and finally to the national coalition Centre,” Mr. Mahama added after losing the 2016 polls.
In 2020, when he met his party members in the Upper East, he also said the NDC increased its votes from around four million to over six million votes in the presidential elections, adding “but for arm twisting, we would have had 145 seats, and won a clear majority in Parliament.”
He promised that “we have learnt from our mistakes. Next time we’ll score 15 over 15 in this Upper East region.”
Taking a swipe at the NPP, he said Ghanaians were disappointed and peeved with unfulfilled promises, economic mismanagement, unemployment, the directionless nature of government to steer the affairs of the nation to prosperity.
He said the NPP government had derailed the pace of socio-economic development bestowed to them, and lost credibility in managing the economy.
Evidence abound that in the two elections NDC was unable to collate results from polling stations to regional collation centres.
BY Daniel Bampoe