None of the 8 deaths occured at the polling station – Jean Mensa

The Chairperson for Ghana’s Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensah, has rejected blame for the 2020 election-related violence that claimed eight lives.

This is the first time the EC Chairperson has publicly acknowledged the death of some eight Ghanaians during the elections.

Speaking to members of the ECOWAS Parliament at Winneba on Wednesday, Jean Mensa said none of the violence that led to the deaths occurred at any of the EC’s polling stations.

“Sadly seven lives were lost and though this did not occur at our polling nor arise at as misconduct on our part, one life lost is one too many. We are confident that our security agencies will share their investigations and recommendations for future learnings,” Jean Mensa told members of the ECOWAS Parliament.

Jean Mensa also touted the success of the 2020 elections to the ECOWAS parliament.

According to her, the elections last year were so successful that the BBC described it as boring. Addressing the high-level seminar of ECOWAS parliament in Winneba, the EC Chair stated, the recently released census results vindicate the number captured during the compilation of the new voters’ register.

“Indeed, our elections of 2020 were solely financed by the government of Ghana. I am happy to note, that this reduced the cost of our election by 41% compared to 2016 notwithstanding inflation and price highs and the fact that we incurred additional cost owing to the COVID-19 protocols we deployed throughout the election.

“We cut the cost per voter from 13 dollars per head in 2016 to 7 dollars 70 cents per head at the time when the cost of elections is rising world over. Needless to say, these were no easy feat, it took the herculean effort of our entire team and the helping hand of the almighty God to establish these achievements. We were met with many challenges but we surmounted most of them and those we could not overcome we learnt from them”.

The 2020 General election which was won by President Akufo-Addo but was challenged by his main contender former President John Mahama at the supreme court.

But Jean Mensah argued the process was the most transparent in the history of the country asking other West African countries to emulate.