Ghana’s President, Akuffo Addo says he doesn’t need the help of the electoral commission to win the 2020 election, here’s why

This, the president said is because he needs the people in the country to vote for him by choice and not by rigging the election.

“I said it to you before, and I will repeat it. I don’t need the Electoral Commission to win an election; I don’t want to win an election in Ghana because of the Electoral Commission. I want to win an election in Ghana because of the people of Ghana; that they make a free and open choice that Akufo-Addo will be, again, their choice,” he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo revealed this on Thursday, September 12, 2019, when the Electoral Commission, led by its Chairperson, Mrs Jean Mensa, paid a courtesy call on him at Jubilee House.

The visit is part of a series of consultative meetings being held with stakeholders of the electioneering process.

In his remarks, he stated that to have an Electoral Commission that is partisan or open to manipulation is essentially striking the heart of the democratic system of the country, adding that “what the ballot should do is to present an unvarnished verdict of the will of the Ghanaian people. That is what should take place of any well-functioning democracy; that the ballot represents a fair, clear statement of what wishes of our people are.”

He added that “If there is any interference with that, it is a distortion of the popular will, and, that, therefore, means that the democracy that you seek to advance itself becomes questionable.”

The need for a commission of integrity, a commission that is not the subject of manipulation by anybody, President Akufo-Addo stressed, is absolutely vital to the direction which the Ghanaian people have decided to go, i.e. the attachment to multi-party democracy.

Touching on the key reforms being undertaken at the Commission, the President was glad to hear of measures underway to institutionalize the role and operation of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).