Jean Mensa defines 2020 election as an inspiration

The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC) Jean Adukwei Mensa says Ghana’s latest election outcome has become a study for most advanced democracies in the world today.

According to her, the 2020 polls was an inspiration that has raised high the flag of Ghana in terms of the system of choosing a leader.

Mrs Mensa disclosed this on Wednesday, October 13 while interacting with the opening of the High-Level Meeting of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) in Winneba, Central Region.

According to her, “To the glory of God, I am pleased to say that Ghana held an election in December 2020 that prove the story of elections in our sub-region can indeed be an inspiration.

“That our story as West African states has been one that brings hope to our youth and light to the coming generations and that we can provide best practices the most advanced democracies of the world can learn from. Yes, we can!”

She described the elections as “historic” in many ways revealing that “I humbly refer to Ghana’s 2020 elections as historic for the transparency, the credibility, the cost-effectiveness, the high turn-out and the peaceful conduct that characterized it.

“So orderly, so methodical, so calm were the polls on the 7th of December, 2020 that BBC could find no other way to describe our elections than boring.”

Although the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) raised concerns about the conduct of the polls, challenging the outcome in court yet the Electoral Commissioner see the entire exercise as a successful step Ghanaians can be proud of.

The party’s Presidential Candidate in the elections, John Dramani Mahama, petitioned the Supreme Court over the results but that petition was unanimously dismissed by a seven-member panel headed by the Chief Justice, Kwesi Anin Yeboah.

The largest opposition party has since tabled some reforms to the Commission to be implemented ahead of the next elections, in 2024.

Mrs Mensa told the ECOWAS MPs that, above all, “all our electoral processes and the election itself were conducted at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic without the spread of the virus”.