Allegation according to NDCHow the 2004 election was rigged in favour of NPP
THE NATIONAL Democratic Congress (NDC) is awakened to an alleged massive electoral fraud by the Electoral Commission (EC) during the 2004 elections, which magnitude of fraud reportedly affected the Presidential election.
The Ashanti regional chairman of the NDC, Mr. Daniel Ohene- Agyekum has raised concerns about the mode of the declaration of election results in 2004 and the manipulation of the results. At a press conference in Kumasi yesterday, he also contested the bloated national register and questioned the legitimacy of the President, based on the 2004 election results.
His conviction is premised on the fact that the results were manipulated to the disadvantage of Prof. John Atta Mills, the NDC Presidential candidate.
Ohene-Agyekum, a career diplomat, said by these fraudulent deals Prof. Atta Mills was deprived of votes and the practice which he believes was widespread, was deliberate to give undue advantage to the NPP Presidential candidate.
“The figures obtained by the Presidential candidates during the 2004 election were so manipulated as to give undeserved advantage to the NPP Presidential candidate which enabled him to win” the NDC chairman stated.
The former Ashanti regional minister tendered copies of EC forms which were claimed to have been designed to facilitate the manipulation of the results by some officials of the EC.
He disclosed that the columns on the said forms meant for headings like “Name of candidate and Number of votes won by candidate,” were deliberately left blank.
The names of the Presidential candidates were written by hand, instead of being printed, following which the results were then wrongly entered.
The figure obtained by Dr. Edward Mahama was recorded in the empty column meant for the heading- “Number of votes won by the candidate,” meaning Mahama's vote had been declared to nobody in particular and consequently shift all other figures up by a step.
In the process the next score which was obtained by Mr. J. A. Kufuor was recorded for Edward Mahama; then Prof. Mills' score was recorded for Mr. Kufuor and George Aggudey's score was recorded for Prof. Atta Mills. By this arrangement, Mr. Aggudey had no score recorded in his name.
The concerned Regional party chairman said the practice was orchestrated by and large in NDC strong holds in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo. By so doing, NDC votes were recorded for NPP to ensure that the NPP Presidential candidate wins the election, which eventually happened, he said.
At the Biadan CMB Shed polling station, Number G071302 in the Berekum constituency of Brong Ahafo, Edward Mahama's two votes was written in an empty space, while Kufuor's votes of 285 was pushed to Mahama. Prof Atta Mills' 512 went to Kufuor while 14 votes were recorded on a line making it difficult to say if it was meant for Prof. Mills or Aggudey.
At polling station number GO73101, 81 votes by Kufuor went to Mahama who polled one vote, while Prof. Atta Mills 132 votes went to Kufuor with Aggudey's 7 votes being pushed to Prof. Atta Mills.
At Fabotoso in the Ahafo Ano North constituency, a temporary booth with polling station number F303603, recorded 63 votes for Kufuor instead of Prof. Atta Mills who by the plan got zero while Edward Mahama got 59 which in actual fact was meant for Kufuor.
At the SDA primary polling station number F303002 at Ankaase in the Ahafo Ano North constituency, Mahama's five votes was wasted away in an empty space while Kufuor's 258 votes was shifted to Mahama, thereby giving Aggudey's one vote to Prof. Atta Mills, who got 146 but was recorded in the name of Kufuor.
The anomaly was not detected in the case of the Parliamentary elections against which background the NDC has recommended that the format of the collation forms for the Presidential results should be designed to conform to that of the parliamentary candidates.
The aggrieved NDC chairman also suggested that there should be a wider horizontal space for recording the results in the appropriate columns with a clear indication of Name of the candidate and votes obtained written in words.
Ohene-Agyekum also questioned the haste in which Messrs. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, Kwamena Bartels and Osafo Maafo among others hastily declared that the NPP had won the elections, four clear hours before the EC made an announcement saying this mode of declaration of results goes contrary to laws and practices in all civilized democratic societies.
He said the EC was coerced to declare results because they feared being questioned on a number of issues.
The NDC Regional chairman indicated that NDC would this time round do everything in its power to pool resources together in order to ensure that the agents at all polling stations are well trained to be able to effectively check these kind of electoral malpractices.
Ohene-Agyekum expressed his concern in the fact that Ashanti region, where he has championed the interest of NDC all this while, is the main target and victim of the bloated national voters register and the manipulation of the 2004 election results and queried why the EC, as an institution, should design a form to enable some members of its staff (Presiding officers) to engage in an electoral fraud.
The NDC dared the EC to look at which persons were responsible for inflating figures on the national register, what manner was the bloating achieved, the motive behind the move and why the bloating took place in Ashanti alone and the 13 constituencies therein, having eventually admitted that the voters' register has been bloated by instituting a probe into it.
According to him, he was not a warlord as people perceived him to be, but a diplomat who wanted issues resolved diplomatically, and cautioned that any attempt by the NPP leadership to repeat what they did in 2004, during the 2008 elections would be a recipe for chaos and disaster. He therefore, called for fair play on the part of the EC and urged all political parties and Ghanaians in general to share the responsibility to protect and defend the provisions of the constitution.