SoNA: Akufo-Addo insists Dec 7 election was free & fair

President Akufo-Addo has reiterated his re-election into office is a product of free and fair election. The December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections were conducted by the Electoral Commission of Ghana and Akufo-Addo subsequently declared winner with a 51.3% of the total valid votes cast. The presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, who came in second place per the EC’s declaration, has however challenged the results at the Supreme Court with an election petition which was filed on December 30. Preceding the filing of the suit, Mr. Mahama together with the NDC had described the election as being “flawed” and the results as being “fictitious”. Members of the NDC also took to the streets in protest of the election results, describing the outcome as a “stolen verdict”. But Akufo-Addo is convinced the election was without blemish and that he has been duly elected. He had described the election as being “free, fair and transparent” in his Christmas message to Ghanaians. While delivering his last State of the Nation Adddress for his first tenure in office, he reiterated the legitimacy of his re-election and the transparency of the processes that elected him. “The Constitution demands that we go to the people after 4 years to ask for a mandate and we must listen to the voice of the people. I said during the campaign and it is my firm and personal view that I shall only be president in a fairly conducted election, which I believe in all sincerity the election of 7^th December was”. The president is also of the view that the decision by John Mahama to seek legal redress on the matter is good for the democracy of the country. By editors.3news.com|Ghana