Politics
Why Didn’t You Add Ballot Stuffing Claim To Your Election Petition? – NDC Activist Asks Mahama
A youth activist of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a former confidante of the late Former President Jerry John Rawlings, Mr Dela Coffie has wondered why John Dramani Mahama failed to add his recent ballot stuffing claims to his 2020 election petition.
The 2020 NDC flagbearer had alleged that the Electoral Commission (EC) allegedly thumb printed one million ballot papers in favour of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 2020 presidential election.
Sharing his thoughts on this development, Dela Coffie said “The postmortem debate over Mahama’s 2020 election loss is still raging. It’s been some 11 months after the last elections, and the loser keeps yelling and telling bizarre election fraud story that has already been debunked both in court and in the public space.
“Here’s the more important part of Mahama’s claims — ‘But for the militarization of the 2020 elections, and ballot stuffing, I would have won.’
“Indeed, former President Mahama has been on and on about this for the umpteenth time. So one would think that party elders would step in and instruct him to shush, but no one seems to care.
“Let’s assume without admitting that these things happened, how come it didn’t form part of the NDC’s case in court? In any event, where is NDC’s own collation figures? Isn’t it embarrassing that for two consecutive elections- (2016- 2020) the NDC’s internal collation system failed? Isn’t it even more embarrassing that the NDC can’t boast of its own collated figures for both 2016 and 2020 elections as we speak? It’s astonishing that after repeated claims of electoral malfeasance and the worst performances at the Supreme Court, former President Mahama is still not learning lessons from his mistakes – he’s still alleging fraud on the street but not in court.
“This same Mahama took everyone on a wild goose chase at the Supreme Court and he continue to deflect blame in any direction he can throw it without reflecting on his own failures. The man doesn’t exactly make it easy to stick with him. His stories are literally so outrageous and demonstrably false that you have to be wilfully blind to keep going along.
“It seems to me that Mahama and his advisors are unaware of the fact that the finger-pointing at the electoral commission (EC) has important implications for how the NDC moves forward.
“The point must be made clear that Election 2020 has long been over. Attempting to rewrite the rules in order to maintain relevance rather than letting the winners get on with running the business is quite irritating and nauseating. I appreciate the fact that there could be legitimate electoral grievances, but quite frankly, NDC leaders ought to up their game.
“Truly, it is beyond comprehension that the NDC is so poorly led that side-lining the current crop of leaders and devolving their responsibilities to fresh leadership seems to be the only way forward.
Everything ought to change, and that means that Mahama must lead the way and stop the rambling and the irrational drivel that comes from him every now and then.
“The NDC needs to move on and deal with weightier matters of party reorganization and get the party back on proper footing with a fresh leadership ahead of election 2024. We need to also push the NDC to a much needed progressive direction. Above all, our leaders needs to differentiate between those things that are worth challenging and those that are not. If you are always carping incessantly about everything, you lose even more relevance than if you had focussed on the real key issues. I shall be back.”
