Mahama calls for neutral body to look into NDC's proposed electoral reforms to EC

Former President, John Dramani Mahama is calling for a neutral body to work on the electoral reform proposals made by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the 2020 general election.

After last year’s election, the NDC felt there was no fairness and as a result proceeded to court to challenge the presidential results.

After the Supreme Court upheld the 2020 results announced by the Electoral Commission (EC), John Dramani Mahama still insists that the 2022 general election is one of the worse he has witnessed.

In an address at a meeting with the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs and the Clergy in Koforidua as part of his thank-you tour to the Region on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, the former President stressed the need for electoral reforms before the 2024 general election.

“We have identified some of the loopholes that made it possible, some of the things that happened and we are taking steps to ensure these things do not happen again. And so as part of that you might have heard that we have made proposals for electoral reforms which we have presented to authorities.

“It is our hope that the National House of Chiefs and Regional House of Chiefs will join voices with us so that we have an independent review of the proposals that have been brought. In most cases after an election, the electoral commission takes steps to set up a panel to look at some of the issues that went wrong and come out with proposals for making sure we correct them and we expect this electoral Commission must do same,” John Mahama said.

He further stressed that to ensure things are done right, a neutral body should be constituted to spearhead the electoral reforms.

“They should get a neutral body, a person that we all respect to oversee the proposals that we all submitted and we can all come to a consensus that we need these changes to make our elections better. That is why we’ve engaged several Institutions, civil society Organizations, we’ve engaged traditional rulers, engaged religious leaders so that we all speak with one voice to allow that process to happen so that our elections can become better than what happened in the past,” Mr. Mahama added.