PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY ON ELECTION 2020 AND MATTERS ARISING, ADDRESSED BY JOHN BOADU, GENERAL SECRETARY

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, good afternoon and welcome to this press conference. We want to thank you once again for your continued support in carrying our messages to the Ghanaian people. Together, we can build a democracy that is viable and accountable to the people. A democracy that is based on sound reasoning and has evidential value, not a democracy based on emotions, empty effusions and rubble-rousing meant only to excite our bases and feed our egos.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we have called you here this afternoon in respect of the presidential and parliamentary elections which were held in our beloved country on the 7thof December, 2020 and which ended on the 9th of December, 2020 with a definitive pronouncement by the Electoral Commissioner (EC) of the winner of the presidential ballot and the number of parliamentary seats won by the respective parties.

Indeed, just yesterday and for the avoidance of doubt, the EC published the number of parliamentary seats held by the NPP and the NDC and an independent candidate. Currently, the NPP has 137 seats. The NDC has 136 and an independent candidate has one seat. There is one seat, the Sene-West seat which is yet to be declared, and we are confident it would go our way.

Again, and for the avoidance of doubt, the two leading presidential candidates posted the following results: – Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 6,730,413, representing 51.302%. John Dramani Mahama, 6,213,182, representing 47.359%. Nana Addo Dankwa of the NPP, won the election emphatically with four percentage points difference between him and his closest challenger, John Dramani Mahama of the NDC.

The votes difference between the two candidates is 517, 231. The percentage points scored by the candidate of the NPP is one of the highest since 1996. So, the presidential election was not even close and therefore there was nothing contentious about it. In 2008, the late Prof. Mills became president with only 50.2% of valid votes cast. In 2012, John Dramani Mahama was president with 50.7% of valid votes cast. In fact, no NDC presidential candidate since Jerry Rawlings has hit the 51% mark in a presidential election.

The 50.2% and the 50.7% that John Mills and John Mahama scored represented 40,586 and 325,863 votes difference between them and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. So, the nation is at a loss as to how a vote difference of 517,231 can be deemed contentious. There is absolutely no doubt in anybody’s mind, that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won the 2020 poll emphatically and without doubt. No amount of whining can change that.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, it is important to state that John Dramani Mahama had from the outset declared his intention to reject the result of the election. He has impugned the integrity of the EC since the beginning of the year and signaled his unwillingness to accept the results of the poll. So, we all know that he is playing according to a script. And we know that the purpose of his effusions is to court the sympathy of the NDC to put him up again as their candidate in 2024. Well, it is entirely up to him. He said in 2016, that it is elementary politics and an old trick for people who know they are losing an election to seek to impugn the integrity of the EC. (Watch this video). We know that too.

But what is strange is the unwillingness of candidate Mahama to go to the appropriate forum to make his case for why in spite of scoring a poor 47.3% of the vote, he should be handed the presidency. His logic beggars belief. The Presidency is not his exclusive right to own. In 2012, we also felt cheated. Our presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, told his supporters that he didn’t want one drop of Ghanaain blood to be shed for him to be president. He said he would take his case to the courts. And he did exactly that. Even when the courts made a pronouncement and he disagreed with the verdict of the court, he accepted it with grace and dignity, and bounced back to win in 2016. (Listen to Akufo-Addo in 2012 and what Mahama told us in 2012). We therefore urge Mahama to do the right thing by going to court.

The Presidency is obtained by running in a presidential election conducted by the EC of Ghana and garnering 50% plus 1 of the votes. Nothing else justifies a claim to the Jubilee House. Unfortunately for John Dramani Mahama, only a court of competent jurisdiction has the authority to hand him the presidency in spite of his poor showing in the election. But he knows that courts don’t operate according to the whims of a presidential candidate behaving like a child crying over candies.

Courts operate according to evidence. We know that John Dramani Mahama has become the butt of many jokes in Ghana today. But this new low that he has sunk sinks his image completely, whether as a human being or as John Dramani Mahama. His effusions further expose what is known of his credential as an incompetent person. In spite of the lessons that the NPP taught the NDC in 2016, the NDC did not have the presence of mind to set up a collation system. That is very poor indeed. But what is worse, is the recklessness with which John Dramani Mahama is conducting his political chess game.

You cannot endanger the security of our country on the altar of your selfish interest. You cannot be President at all costs. John Dramani Mahama is asking other people’s children to hit the streets for him to be candidate of his party in 2024 while his children are locked away in comfort and luxury in Dubai. That is most irresponsible to say the least.

Regarding the parliamentary election, the results were collated and declared in all constituency EC collation centers across the country, except that of Sene-West, which is yet to be declared. The EC has affirmed that indeed, the NPP has the majority of seats in parliament as of now. Yet, the NDC continues to insist that they have a parliamentary majority in spite of this glaring fact. It is important to remind the NDC that they are not entitled to their set of facts. In an election, pink sheets are the primary documents by which victors and vanquished are decided.

The results that the EC has put out has been corroborated by CODEO, endorsed as free and fair by the EU Mission, resolved by the media and accepted by CSOs and the international community. It cannot be the case that all these internationally reputable organisations are in cahoots with the EC to steal an election. The election of Nana Akufo-Addo as president-elect of the republic of Ghana reflects the will of the Ghanaian people, reflecting on the work that the Akufo-Addo led government has done in the last four years to advance the development of the country.

We call on Ghanaians to condemn without reservation, the intransigence of the NDC and urge the NDC to resort to the courts to address their grievances, if they believe they have any. We call on the security agencies to be resolute and protect the state. We have confidence that majority of Ghanaians believe in and accept the verdict of the election as rendered by the EC and corroborated by all except the NDC. The closeness of the parliamentary vote is Ghanaians way of telling us to collaborate, and avoid the adversarial politics that has characterised most of our fourth republican politics.

We accept that challenge. We shall work with the minority for the interest of the country.

It is important to state that we also dispute the results of some parliamentary results. But we have not asked our supporters to go on the streets to protest these results. Our lawyers are putting our evidence together to go to the courts to challenge them. That is the way of the democracy that we have fashioned for ourselves. No other way works. Ghana shall not burn on account for one person’s selfish interests.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we want you to continue to ask the NDC to put out their numbers for the presidential ballot if they have any. They dispute what the EC has put out. They dispute what CODEO has put out. They dispute what all the media houses have put out. So, what in their estimation is the correct results? The media should demand this from them.

On our part, the election is over. We have set up our transition team. We are moving on with the business of governance. We shall not be distracted. Let the Ghanaian people speak up, the National Peace Council, the National House of Chiefs and Civil Society Organisations speak up and tell John Dramani Mahama that this country is bigger than his ego.

Thank you for coming. May God bless our homeland Ghana and make her great and strong.