Former Majority Leader of Parliament, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has alleged that the declaration of results in the 2016 general elections was deliberately delayed under questionable circumstances by the Electoral Commission chairperson, Charlotte Osei.

According to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, the Electoral Commission (EC) at the time cited a supposed systematic hack as the reason for withholding the official results.

He claimed that this hesitation heightened political tension across the country.

“The Electoral Commissioner was reluctant to release and declare the 2016 election results, all in the name of systematic hacking, as the EC chairperson claimed. 

It took the effort of some chiefs, pastors, and Ibrahim Mahama, the brother of then-President John Mahama, to call the Commissioner before the results were released,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu alleged while speaking in an interview on Accra-based Kessben FM on Friday, September 5, 2025.

He further argued that by delaying the announcement, the EC was “perpetuating riot” and putting the country’s peace at risk. However, he noted that Ghanaians remained calm throughout the tense period.

He called on people not to mix the issue of the removal of the EC boss with the removal of the Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkonoo.

By doing so, it is like mixing apples with oranges, he posited.

He stated that these actions warranted the removal of the EC  chairperson, adding that three chairpersons were all the time at each other's throats, and my Haruna Iddrissu is aware of this.

He added that frosty relations between the EC chairperson and her two deputies were unhealthy for the management of elections