Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, has promised to initiate a fresh investigation into the deaths that occurred during the 2020 general elections if his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), wins the next Election in 2024.

Mahama also pledged to compensate the Families of the eight people who died during the election, blaming President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for not sending his condolences to the families.

Mahama made this promise during his three-day tour of the Eastern Region in Ghana, where he addressed branch and constituency executives of both Lower West Akyem and Upper West Akyem constituencies at Asamankese.

He stated that the compensation would serve as a consolation to the families who lost their loved ones during the election.

The country witnessed Electoral Violence in the 2020 elections which resulted in several deaths. To address the issue, the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), with support from the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), and in collaboration with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) organized a forum for victims and families affected by the 2020 electoral violence, the Ghana Police Service, the National Peace Council, political parties and the media in February 2022.

Under its ‘Post-Elections Accountability on Elections Security’ project, CDD-Ghana has been tracking the status of electoral violence cases recorded in the 2020 elections in 11 constituencies from six out of the 16 administrative regions in Ghana.

The project aims to advocate for the speedy resolution of all cases to engender public trust in the security and criminal justice system and limit the tendency for potential reprisal attacks in future elections.

The forum helped to bridge the gap between the victims/families and the state, security agencies, and criminal justice institutions to engender trust among them in the pursuit of justice.

It also provided the victims and affected families with a safe space to share their stories and challenges in seeking justice while giving them access to credible information from key stakeholders on their respective cases.