A Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of African Studies (IAS), Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, has said that the Electoral Commission (EC) appears to be under the influence of an external dictator due to its current posture.

Speaking on Joy Prime's Prime Morning on Wednesday, he stated that the manner in which the Deputy Chairman of the Commission, in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, responded to concerns raised by former President John Mahama on voter fraud, is a clear sign of bowing to directives from unknown individuals.

"What we are witnessing in the current EC is that, it has become more partisan than the political parties themselves. Look at the rendition, the posturing and the language of the EC in its recent reaction to comments made by the former President...I think that it is very bizarre."

Mr Mahama at a 'thank you' tour of the Eastern region alleged that many things went wrong during the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Among other things, he stated that the military invaded collation centres and forced electoral officers to declare results while some one million extra ballot papers were printed after the printing exercise.

“This is one of the worst ever elections we’ve had in Ghana. So many things went wrong,” he told the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs and the Clergy in Koforidua on Tuesday, October 12.

Few days later, the EC organised a press conference to respond to the allegations and called on John Mahama to provide proof of his claims.

The EC stated that although they believe the claims are false, allegations of ballot stuffing can undermine the credibility of the electoral process and thus should not be ignored.

The electoral body explained that not only has the election been hailed as highly transparent, fair, credible, and inclusive, it was also a reflection of the will of the people.

But commenting on the development, Dr Kpessa-Whyte said he is disappointed.

He said the Deputy Chairman in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, who addressed the press conference, could have done better.

"I am quite surprised at what is going on and the kind of tone and the choice of words and his [Bossman Asare] general posturing. I have come to one conclusion that the EC is being remote-controlled from a centre that may be the nation is yet to discover," he alleged.

According to him, "the entire diction of that statement is not Bossman Asare's."

"If you want me to prove that to you, as an academic, he has published papers. Go take his papers, read those papers, check the rendition of those papers and look at the rendition of the statement that he had read and the kind of things that he had said and clearly you’d discover that someway, somehow, he has become an auto machine that is being remote-controlled from somewhere I don’t know."

He urged the EC to take an introspection of its activities and all elections it has organised in order to assess its performance, rather than relying on international bodies to rate the outcome of elections.

The EC's press conference held on Monday, October 25, has received criticisms from some Ghanaians, with some describing it as not balanced and one-sided.

Political Science lecturer of the University of Ghana, Prof Ransford Gyampo, beleieves that what Mr Asare "did was just about reading a poetry recital of responses that only offers praise in a manner that also [convey] a certain combativeness."