The main opposition National Democratic Congress’ demand for a forensic audit of the voter roll has "no substance," President Nana Akufo-Addo has told France24 in an interview.

The NDC held a demonstration in the capital Accra and other parts of the country a few weeks ago to demand the election management body undertake the audit.

The NDC claims there are discrepancies in the voter roll including illegal name transfers, missing voters and the inclusion of the names of over 50,000 dead people.

The party’s Director of Elections, Edward Omane Boamah said an independent audit of the electoral roll was the only way to ensure transparency and fairness in the electoral process. 

Asked about the mistrust of the opposition party in the electoral process under his watch, Mr Akufo-Addo retorted: “It’s not me, I’m not responsible for the electoral process,” adding: “It’s the Electoral Commission.”

In the president’s view, the EC gave the NDC enough chance to prove their case but failed.

“They [opposition] had the opportunity – the Electoral Commission chose to broadcast publicly the deliberations on these issues and I think the whole country came to realise that, in fact, there was very little substance in the claims the opposition was making and they had now gone ahead to say that they will abide by the programme that the Electoral Commission had laid out.”

“I think that that means implicitly that the demands that they were making have been shelved and they have to be shelved because there is no substance to it,” Mr Akufo-Addo added.

Mr Akufo-Addo leaves office on 7 January 2025 after serving two four-year consecutive terms.

He supports his vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to succeed him against former President John Mahama.

There are a few independent candidates and small parties in the race but the odds fall on the two dominant parties who have alternated in governing the country for the past 32 years under Ghana’s fourth republican constitution.

The knife-edge 2024 elections will put Ghana’s democracy to the test as the governing New Patriotic Party seeks to break the cycle of change of government every eight years while the biggest opposition party is poised to ensure a comeback.