The electoral commission of Ghana early Wednesday apologised to citizens over its inability to declare the results of the presidential election at the 5 p.m. it earlier promised but assured that the collation process has been transparent, fair, and participatory.

Addressing the media at around 2 a.m., Eric Bossman, the deputy chairperson, corporate services at the commission, said they had received collated results from 14 regions and were working to finalise the remaining two.

Mr Bossman, however, said the results would be declared if they find that the outcome in the two regions, which have a combined total of 29 constituencies, will not affect the overall outcome of the election.

“As a commission, we will come back and revise the numbers once we have them available.”

The commission further said in a statement that it had involved political party agents at all levels: at the polling station, constituency collation centres, and the national collation centre.

“At the time of issuing this release, two representatives each of the political parties, including representatives of the NDC are at the commission, working with the commission’s staff at the national collation centre. The process is going on well,” the statement added.

As of 6 a.m. Wednesday, the results in more than 250 constituencies have been announced and President Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party has maintained his narrow lead, polling 6,375,560, against his closest challenger and former president John Mahama, a candidate of the National Democratic Congress, who has 5,879,737.

After the collation at the 275 constituencies, the results will be taken to the 16 regions, before the final collation at the national level by the electoral commission.
At the end of collation, the candidate who secures over 50 per cent votes will be declared the winner.

The NPC has also won 132 parliamentary seats against the NDC’s 125