[ads1]
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame has responded to the NDC petition to the police to probe the 2020 general elections.
The leading opposition party have petitioned the Inspector General of Police, George Akufo Dampare to open an investigations into over one million illegal presidential ballot papers allegedly printed in the 2020 general elections.[ads2]
Part of the petition, signed by the General Secretary of the party, Johnson Asiedu Nketia to the IGP reads ,“I write on behalf of the National Democratic Congress to petition your office to institute criminal investigations into and prosecute persons culpable in the illegal printing of over one million excess presidential ballots meant for the Ashanti Region at Innolink Printing press, one of the seven security printing firms contracted by the Electoral Commission to print election materials for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections,”
The NDC, in the petition, were also demanding update of investigations carried by the police on electoral malpractices and violence that characterized the election and voter registration exercise.[ads3]
“As you aware, the 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary elections were characterised by various acts of violence before, during, and after elections. Indeed, for the first time in Ghana’s electoral history, at least one person lost his life during voter registration and as many eight others lost their lives in incidents of gun violence involving security personnel with several others sustaining various degrees of injuries.
“We contend that the failure on the part of the police to deal decisively with such heinous crimes portends clear dangers for Ghana’s democracy that all well-meaning Ghanaians and development partners should be concerned about. It is for this reason that we request that the Ghana Police Service provides us updates on the state of investigation and prosecution.”[ads4]
Reacting to this at the Commonwealth Election Professionals Initiative Africa Region Training Program in Accra on Monday, November 15, 2021, Godfred Yeboah Dame, as quoted by Citinewsonline said, “Where that [claim] emanated from, I don’t know. What is even more surprising is the forum at which they made the allegation. They had the opportunity of filling such a claim at the Supreme Court, and they couldn’t even prove it. They couldn’t even tell the number of votes they obtained. I think it shows the total confusion that they are living under and in my view, it is just an attempt to unnecessarily deceive their supporters to think that Mahama performed any better, he did not.”
He also commended the Electoral Commission for conducting credible and fair elections in the midst of the pandemic.[ads5]
