The claims made by National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer John Dramani Mahama concerning the selection of Returning Officers for the 2024 elections have been categorically denied by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Mr. Mahama recently charged that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was selecting its own members to the EC in an interview at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
In addition, he expressed doubts about the integrity of the EC in light of allegations made by the election management body that MPs and DCEs were asked to reveal the names of NPP members while they were hiring Returning Officers and their deputies.
In a statement dated April 25, Fred Tetteh, the Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation, refuted these allegations. He took issue with Mahama’s criticism of a practice he claimed.
In response to Mahama’s claims, the EC further explained that the hiring procedure for Returning Officers and their Deputies was carried out in a fair and open manner.
The Commission encouraged ALL interested Ghanaians to apply for the roles of Returning Officers and Deputy Returning Officers, as per the public notification attached. It is untrue that Ministers and DCEs were ordered “to write the names of party apparatchiks and present them so that they would be appointed as the returning officers,” as claimed by the former president Mahama.
The Commission denies this baseless accusation made by the outgoing President. Open, equitable, and transparent hiring procedures were followed for Returning Officers and their Deputies. Following the announcement of the opening in the Daily Graphic on February 5th the Commission received 20,561 applications in total in 2024.