Clement Apaak, Member of Parliament for Builsa South
The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, has slammed Electoral Commissioner Jean Mensa for describing the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections as transparent, credible and methodic.
The legislator opined that the EC boss could describe an election characterized by violence, lack of transparency and credibility as free and fair.
The EC Chairperson has indicated that the electoral body saved the nation up to $90 million after spending over $700 million in the 2020 polls.
She said the EC managed to reduce the cost of the elections through prudent management compared to the 2016 polls.
She explained that the EC reduced the cost of the election from $13 per person in 2016 to $7.7 in 2020.
She was speaking at the opening ceremony of the high-level parliamentary seminar on the theme ‘Two decades of democratic elections in ECOWAS member states: achievements, challenges and the way forward’.
The Commissioner said the EC also reduce the time for the elections from 10-12 minutes to three to five minutes in 2020.
According to her, the 2020 polls were organized without funding from external sources.
She further described the polls as historic, transparent in the face of the Covid-19 outbreak and price hikes.
“I humbly refer to Ghana’s 2020/elections as historic for the transparency, credibility, cost-effectiveness, high turnout, and peaceful conduct that characterized them. So orderly, so methodical, so calm were the polls on 7th December 2020 that BBC Africa could find no other way to describe our elections than ‘boring’.”
But reacting to the issue Dr. Clement Apaak says the poor performance of the EC and the lack of transparency in the polls are not alien to ECOWAS.
He posited that the 2020 polls were historic because the EC wasted money on a needless new register, announced ad changed results for the presidential election favour the ruling government.
He further claimed that the EC boss failed to testify during the presidential petition because she knew she would have been exposed.
“Oh please Madam, don’t think your deeds are alien to the ECOWAS Parliament. They know the 2020 elections were historic because, you wasted public funds on a needless new voters register when the earlier one was still fit for purpose, you announced and changed the Presidential poll results at least six times, As the returning officer for the Presidential Elections, you refused to enter the dock after you had earlier indicated you will. You chicken out because you knew you would be exposed and the fraud associated laid bare.
“The elections you organized saw the murder of 8 innocent citizens and the maiming of many others. Shamefully historic. You printed an extra 1 million ballot papers on the blind side of the NDC.”