Deputy Director of Elections and IT for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Dr Rashid Tanko-Computer, has alleged that the 2020 general election was rigged in favour of the then governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Speaking on JoyPrime’s Prime Morning Show on Wednesday, Tanko-Computer accused the Electoral Commission of colluding with the NPP to deny the NDC’s flagbearer, then former President John Dramani Mahama, a rightful victory in the 2020 polls.

“The NDC learnt lessons from previous elections. We learnt from the 2016 election and again from the 2020 election,” he said. “The 2020 election was massively rigged. They rigged the election because H.E. John Dramani Mahama should have been president in 2020.”

He further alleged that the Electoral Commission acted in concert with the ruling party to manipulate the election outcome.

“The NPP rigged the election with the connivance of the Electoral Commission. The figures were very clear. You saw why Madam Jean Mensa didn’t want to enter the docket.”

Dr Tanko-Computer cited the manual nature of Ghana’s electoral process as a key vulnerability, arguing that dishonest election officials could easily manipulate results.

“Because of the manual nature of our elections in Ghana, when you have very crooked officers as presiding and returning officers, they can rig the election without your knowledge,” he claimed.

Reflecting on the party’s past election monitoring strategies, he admitted that a lack of rigorous oversight may have contributed to the situation.

“We’ve learnt our lessons. Perhaps there was some laxity in monitoring the process. We’ve upped our game for the 2024 elections. We’re coming in stronger to ensure we monitor both the Electoral Commission and the NPP,” he said.