#Election2024: Don’t bring any soldier to the polling stations – Mahama warns EC

#Election2024: Don’t bring any soldier to the polling stations – Mahama warns EC

The former President of Ghana and the twice-beaten NDC presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama has sent a strong warning to the Electoral Commission regarding the security arrangements for the 2024 general elections.

Speaking on Power FM/TV XYZ earlier this week (November 9), Mr. Mahama said the NDC will insist that the role of security for polls be laid squarely in the domain of the police. “About soldiers, we don’t want any soldier at the Polling Center, they should maintain a distance,” he stated.

“It is the Police who are supposed to be at the polling centres and we are all going to be at the collation centres from close of poll till results are counted and collated,” he continued.

The not-yet-declared aspiring flagbearer of the major opposition party opines that they can’t allow the terrible happenings of the 2020 elections that caused the demise of many people to repeat themselves in the 2024 elections. “Those unfortunate incidents are the main reason why security issues must be streamlined in the 2024 polls”, he stressed.

According to him, the NDC maintains its mistrust for the EC because of the conduct of the 2020 polls and that they will treat the EC as an opponent going into the 2024 polls.

“That is why I said “do or die,” it means we are going to make sure every base is covered. To make sure everything is done. We are going to approach the election like a footballer who realizes that the referee is against him.

“Just as Azumah Nelson goes into a ring with his referee, we will go into 2024 with our own referee. I want to tell all NDC members that the elections will be won at the polling stations and collation centres, so we are going to police it religiously,” he added.

Mahama is yet to state whether he will be a candidate for the next election but he is widely expected to stand. It will be his fourth candidature after winning in 2012 and losing twice to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2016 and 2020.