The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has taken a swipe at the European Union’s observer mission over their report on the 2020 general elections.
The legislator slammed them for describing the 2020 polls as free and fair when the polls were a “sham”.
The European Union’s Chief Election Observer, Javier Nart, who is also a member of the European Parliament from Spain, described the 2020 general elections organized by the Jean Mensa-led Electoral Commission of Ghana, as were free and fair.
According to him, the process also met a range of international standards.
Presenting the EU EOM’s final report on its observation of the election on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, Mr. Nart explained that Ghana’s efficiently organized, competitive, free 2020 polls met international standards.
“The conclusion in the mission’s final report is that the elections were efficiently organized, competitive, that voters participated freely in large numbers, and that the process successfully met a range of international standards,” Mr. Nart said, adding that the overall conduct of voting was assessed positively in 95 percent of polling stations observed.
“However, shortcomings already identified by previous EU election observation missions remain, such as the misuse of state resources, the abuse of incumbency, vote-buying, and unregulated campaign finances. These resulted in an uneven playing field.”
The EC also claimed in their report that It further noted that the media – both state-owned and private – were polarised in their coverage of Ghana’s just-ended general elections.
It noted that: “State-owned GTV favoured the NPP in its election-related coverage”.
“Furthermore, the ruling party and its presidential candidate benefited from extensive additional coverage on GTV, Uniiq FM and in the Daily Graphic through news and live broadcasts of government inaugurations”.
Additionally, it said: “Various private media analysed by the EU EOM showed biased coverage in favour of the NPP (UTV, The Chronicle, Daily Guide) or the NDC (Adom FM and Joy FM)”.
But Dr. Apaak reacting disagreed with the report, saying, the report is not the true reflection of what happened during the polls.
He recounted the military invasion of parliament, the brutal killings of some persons on Election Day and what he termed as the materialization of the election process to support his claims.
He added that the EU Mission was compromised because they failed to report on the facts and the true outcome of the elections.
He said the world ought to know that the EU failed in its job in observing reporting accurately.
EU’s observer report on election 2020, a sham, failed: to note killing of 8 Ghanaians; brutalisation of many; militarization of the collation process; invasion of parliament by the military; and that Adom and Joyfm were ProNDC! Clearly, the mission was compromised, the world ought to know!”
