Bombshell: EC Did Not Add Votes From Lolobi And Akpafu In Presidential Results

Two weeks after the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Jean Mensa controversially declared Nana Akufo-Addo as President-elect in the 2020 election, it has emerged that the EC left out the votes of two areas within the political stronghold of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Oti Region.

The people of Lolobi and Akpafu who were able to vote in the presidential election but not in the parliamentary elections are demanding that the EC to tell them the whereabouts of the votes that they cast in the presidential election as those votes were never counted among the Presidential results declared by the EC.

“Even more pertinent, it appears votes duly cast and counted at the various polling stations on the Presidential election were taken to an unlisted Constituency Collation Center hence did not reflect in all published results of the 2020 elections,” a 16th December letter to the EC demanded.

The letter was from the Office of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) for the Akpafu and Lolobi Traditional Areas. It was signed by Mr. S.K.T. Owusu, representative of the Lolobi and Akpafu traditional areas.

It is not clear what the number of the votes that were cast in the two areas is, but the exclusion of such votes make the declaration of Akufo-Addo as President-elect by Jean Mensa, even more, contentious than the public has already gotten to know.

Jean Mensa had declared Akufo-Addo President-elect on 9th December, apportioning the President a little over 51% of the valid votes cast as against a little over 46% that she apportioned to former President John Mahama of the NDC.

However, the results have since been discredited with the EC admitting it made a mistake after the percentages it allotted the various candidates added up to over 100 percent after analysis. 

It has since also emerged that the EC fraudulently deducted vote numbers from John Mahama and padded the results gotten by Akufo-Addo, leading to the NDC to reject the “fraudulent” results with a very high possibility of going to court.

Meanwhile, the JSC of the aggrieved communities is demanding from the EC, answers over the disenfranchisement of the people in the area. 

The confusion stemmed from the fact that after the creation of the new Oti Region, the people of the two traditional areas had said they wanted to remain in the Volta Region from which they were carved out of and remain under the Hohoe constituency rather than join the Oti Region.

However, their location was such that the Supreme Court had ruled they could not join the Volta Region. Jean Mensa then promised that a new Mother Constituency would be created for them, apparently to be named Guan Constituency. But contrary to the assurances of the EC boss, the new constituency was not created before the elections.

 “Is it not strange that the people of Akpafu and Lolobi Traditional areas who had consciously and religiously exercised their franchise in every general election since 1992 were unable to do same in 2020 through no fault of theirs? It is important to note that Akpafu and Lolobi have always been part and parcel of the Hohoe Constituency to the best of our knowledge,” the strongly worded letter said.

In a four-point question to the EC, the letter from the JSC of Akpafu and Lolobi demanded to know, “under which constituency were the Presidential election votes of Lolobi and Akpafu collated?” 

It also demanded to know the law that empowered the EC to disenfranchise them from voting in the Parliamentary elections.

Legal experts have warned that this singular act by the EC boss Jean Mensa, could be ample grounds for her impeachment.