I will concede defeat after independent forensic audit— Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama says he will concede defeat if an independent forensic audit of the results of the just ended election confirms that he lost as declared by the Electoral Commission (EC).
In the interim, he insisted that, there was a deliberate attempt by the EC to subvert the will of the people in favour of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
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In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA), on Tuesday, former President Mahama said: “If an independent audit is done by the EC, we will bring somebody to crunch the numbers and do an independent audit, why not, and I will be the first to concede and walk away.
“But as long as that is not done, and I know that there was a deliberate attempt to subvert the will of the people in favour of the incumbent. It will be wrong for me in terms of our democratic process to just leave it because we will not learn the lessons of this election.”
His comments follows his earlier rejection of the 2020 election results, which put incumbent President Akufo-Addo ahead of him, with 51.597 per cent as against his 47.366 per cent.
The NDC has since last Wednesday been protesting against the results, stating that its pink sheets indicate that the party won the presidential elections as well as some parliamentary seats, but have been cheated.
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Religious groups and civil society organisations have urged aggrieved parties to seek legal redress, but they are yet to take any step one week after the elections were held.
However, Former President Mahama, said that option was under consideration as the party was currently conducting its own audit of all constituency results to establish what happened and reconfirm its figures.
“This case might end up in court. I cannot mention anything for now. We are doing an audit and based on that, we will take the decision we need to take.
“In the interest of the more than six million people who voted for me, I must uphold our democracy and hold EC to higher standards and hold this government to higher standards in terms of our democracy,” he said.
According to the Former President, he could not let the irregularities in this year’s elections pass because the government and the EC had dented the country’s democratic process.
“And so in my principles as a democrat, I can’t be seen sweeping it under the carpet and letting it go. I think we must bring closure to this by seeing exactly where the issues are,” he said.
