The founder and leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), one of the opposition political parties in the country, has called on the former flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr John Dramani Mahama, to report his claim of ballot-stuffing in the 7 December 2020 polls to the police administration if he (Mahama) has genuine concerns.

According to Kofi Akpaloo, ballot-stuffing is a criminal offence and such action on the part of the Electoral Commission, as alleged by Mr Mahama, must not be taken kindly.

Mr Akpalu said this in an interview with Kwame Appiah Kubi, host of ‘Ghana Yensom’ on Accra100.5FM.

“Former President Mahama, as a leader of the largest opposition political party, must, as a matter of urgency, report his claims to the police administration for action to be taken,” he said.

He reminded the former president to without hesitation report the details of his findings on the EC engaging in ballot stuffing to the police for the needed actions to be taken on the matter.

“He (Mahama) must report the matter to the police for the security agencies to take it up from there if as a leader he is so sincere about his claims about the EC,” Mr Akpaloo stressed.     

He reminded the former president that if his claims are true then there ought to have been excess ballot after collation of the ballots but “the ballots the EC chairperson, Jean Mensah, declared tallied after collation,” he said. 

“There were no excess ballots after the EC’s declaration…It was before elections 2012 that people could vote more than once but post-2012, it is impossible for people to vote more than once in any elections in the country,” he argued.

Mr Akpaloo said, “it is amazing how the former president was privy to all these claims about the EC but was not able to present all these to the Supreme Court during the 2020 Election Petition hearing.”

“It is high time the NDC stops deceiving its supporters and show them some respect with all these claims that elections were rigged in favour of the governing New Patriotic Party,” he added.

Meanwhile, the EC has asked the Ghana Police Service to also investigate Mr Mahama’s claim.

Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Affairs, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, told journalists at a press conference on Monday, 25 October 2021 that: “The former president has said that the EC thumb-printed one million ballot papers in favour of the President of the Republic. This is untrue”.

“This is not a matter that should be ignored, and we call on the Ghana Police Service to investigate it,” Dr Bossman Asare added.

“This is a great matter that undermines the credibility of the electoral process and should not be ignored. We call on him to provide evidence to support this claim,” he challenged.