Election 2024: Fact-checking election-related disinformation content [Day 6]

Today is presidential results declaration day according to the Electoral Commission. Chairperson of the EC is scheduled to formally declare the winner of the election at 4:30 pm at the National Collation Center in Accra.

Jean Mensa is expected to announce that former president John Dramani Mahama has been duly elected as president after the December 7, 2024 elections. Mahama’s main contender, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has already conceded to Mahama in the early hours of December 8, 2024.

The party Mahama leads, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has a big majority in the next parliament according to certified and provisional results reported in the media.

Below are claims worked on by the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition on December 7, which is Day 6 of our operations.

List of headlines:

• Video of Mahama saying NDC will cancel Free SHS, doctored
• No evidence Nana Kwame Bediako voted for NPP
• Viral video of Akufo Addo reacting to election result, old and unrelated
• Reports suggesting President Akufo Addo is hospitalised, false
• Video of vandalized police station shared on TV3 happened in Techiman South Police station not Lamashegu
• The picture of Ursula Owusu resting at a collation center is old
• 13.80 cedis to dollar exchange rate false
• Video claiming KT Hammond refused to speak to the press after his defeat old
• Explainer: Can Parliament trigger removal of Supreme Court judges?
• True, Police arrested Tolon DCE over shooting incident
• False! Sale of old Metro Mass Transit buses predates NPP defeat

CLAIM 1

Headline: Video of Mahama saying NDC will cancel Free SHS, doctored.

Claim: A TikToker has shared a video in which John Mahama, the 2024 NDC Presidential Candidate, said the party would cancel the free senior high school (SHS) policy when voted into office. 

Source: TikTok (Archived).

Verdict: False

Explanation: Research by the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition showed Mr Mahama did not make the alleged statement. The video is a doctored version of the 2024 NDC flagbearer’s engagement in Kumasi in the heat of the campaign. In the original unedited version of Mr Mahama’s engagement with the clergy in Kumasi, he said: “Those saying we[NDC] will cancel it, it’s a political gimmick… It is not true, today or tomorrow, Free SHS has come to stay.” It is, therefore, not true that Mr Mahama said the NDC would cancel the free SHS policy when voted into office. 

 

CLAIM 2

Headline: No evidence Nana Kwame Bediako voted for NPP

Claim: An X user @EddieTheKin has claimed that Independent Candidate Nana Kwame Bediako voted for the New Patriotic Party

Source: X archived here

Verdict: No evidence. The video accompanying the claim does not reveal the party he voted for.

Explanation: An analysis of the video reveals that Nana Kwame Bediako had already cast his ballot and was folding it into the ballot box. The video does not show him thumb-printing his ballot, nor does it disclose the party he voted for.

 

CLAIM 3

Headline: Viral video of Akufo Addo reacting to election result, old and unrelated

Claim: TikTok user, menu. tabor shared a video of President Akufo-Addo, implying that his reaction in the video is his response to the December 7, 2024 election results. “See President Nana Addo’s reaction seeing the results” the caption read. 

Source: menu.tabor (on TikTok)/ video

Verdict: False

Explanation: The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition’s verification through a Google reverse image search reveals that the video is an old video from May 2019, captured during a football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax in the UEFA Champions League. The video is, therefore, in no way related to the elections.

 

CLAIM 4

Headline: Did John Mahama get 6.2M votes in 2020 and 2024?

Claim: An X user claims Former President John Mahama got 6.2 million votes both in the 2020 and 2024 general elections.

Source: X archived here

Verdict: Misleading

Explanation: According to data archived by the Electoral Commission of Ghana on the 2020 presidential election results, former president John Mahama garnered 6,213,182 votes. 

Meanwhile, at the time the claimant made the post, the results of the just-ended 2024 general elections had not been officially declared. As of midday on December 9, 2024, no official records for a summary of the 2024 presidential election result exist. 

 

CLAIM 5

Headline: Reports suggesting President Akufo Addo is hospitalised, false, 

Claim: President Akufo Addo was rushed to the hospital for medical attention

Source: Phoenix News  website Archived Here

Verdict: False!

Explanation: Checks by the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition at the presidency have confirmed that this claim is false and that the president is in good health.

 

CLAIM 6

Headline: Reports suggesting President Akufo Addo is hospitalised, false 

Claim: President Akufo Addo was rushed to the hospital for medical attention

Source: Phoenix News  website Archived Here

Verdict: False!

Explanation: Checks by the Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition at the presidency have confirmed that this claim is false and that the president is in good health.

 

CLAIM 7

Headline: Video of vandalized police station shared on TV3 happened in Techiman South Police station not Lamashegu 

Claim: An Instagram video shared on TV3 is alleging that the Lamashegu Police Station was vandalized by some youth in Tamale.

Source: TV3 (Instagram) (Archived).

Verdict: Misleading

Explanation: The same video was shared by Channel One TV on X , showing NDC youth storming the Techiman South Police Station, which served as a collation center. 

Upon comparing the footage from both posts, it was confirmed that the building shown in the video is located in Techiman South, not Lamashegu. The video shared by TV3 actually depicts the events in Techiman South, not the Lamashegu Police Station.

 

CLAIM 8

Headline: The picture of Ursula Owusu resting at a collation center is old

Claim: An X user shares a photo of Ursula Owusu supposedly resting at the Ablekuma West Collation Center after losing her seat.

Source: Twitter archived here

Verdict: Misleading 

Explanation:  The Ghana Fact-checking Coalition conducted a reverse image search. Our findings reveal that the image is old. A TinEye search indicates that the image first appeared online on Dec. 31, 2016.

 

CLAIM 9

Headline: 13.80 cedis to dollar exchange rate false

Claim: A Facebook user has claimed that the current exchange rate of the US dollar to the Ghanaian cedi is 13.80.

Source: Facebook archived here

Verdict: False

Explanation: According to the Central Bank of Ghana as of Dec. 9 2024 the exchange rate is Ghc14.8626 to 1 US dollar. Also according to the Ghana Commercial Blank, the US dollar is selling at Ghc14.60 and buying at Ghc14.95 today. Exchange rates fluctuate based on a variety of economic factors, including inflation rates, interest rates, and overall economic stability. Misinformation about exchange rates can have significant implications for individuals and businesses alike. However, exchange rates fluctuate by the second and vary depending on the amount and product bought and sold.

 

CLAIM 10

Headline: Video claiming KT Hammond refused to speak to the press after his defeat old

Claim: KT Hammond refuses to speak to the press after his defeat 

Source: Social media (here and here). 

Verdict: Misleading

Explanation: The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition found that the video claiming Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa, KT Hammond, refused to speak to the media after his electoral defeat is old. 

Our review showed that the video was from a January 4, 2024, interview he granted the media after his party’s vetting committee dismissed his petition to stop his main contender, Sammy Binfoh Darkwa, from contesting the NPP Parliamentary Primaries. 

 

CLAM 11

Explainer: Parliament plays no role in removal of Supreme Court judges. Here is all you need

Some social media users (here, here, and here) claimed the NDC could remove Supreme Court justices when it secures a two-thirds majority in Parliament. 

Provisional results point to an outright win for John Mahama, the 2024 National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential candidate, in the just-ended election. 

Also, unconfirmed results from the 276 constituencies predict that the opposition NDC is on its way to commanding a majority in the 9th Parliament. If the NDC secures at least 184 Members of Parliament (MPs) out of the 276 available seats, the party would have a two-thirds majority in the House.

Grounds for removal of SC justices

The removal of Supreme Court justices is guided by Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. 

The law provides that a Supreme Court justice can only be removed on “stated misbehaviour or incompetence or on ground of inability to perform the functions of his office arising from infirmity of Body or mind.”

Clause (2) of Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution states that if the President wants to remove a Supreme Court justice, it must be done according to the procedure provided in the law.

Procedure for removal of SC justices

The starting point for removing a Supreme Court justice is submitting a petition to the President, who shall, in turn, forward it to the Chief Justice to determine whether there is any basis for the removal. The law provides that the Chief Justice would have to weigh if the petition establishes a “prima facie case” to warrant consideration. 

A prima facie is a Latin expression that means “at a glance” whether or not a piece of evidence is true. 

When the Chief Justice establishes that the petition is worth considering, she will set up a five-member committee consisting of three Supreme Court judges appointed by the Judicial Council and two other persons appointed by the Chief Justice on the advice of the Council of State. The law provides that the two other members of the Committee should neither be members of the Council of State nor MPs. 

According to Clause (5) of Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution, the work of the Committee is to investigate the complaint contained in the petition and make recommendations to the Chief Justice for onward submission to the President.

Recommendation of the five-member Committee

The President is required under clause (7) of Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution to “act in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee.”

However, during the investigation period, the President can suspend the justice being investigated and revoke the suspension upon concluding the Committee’s work.

Conclusion:

As the social media users alleged, the removal of Supreme Court justices has nothing to do with a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

 

CLAIM 12

Headline: True, Police arrested Tolon DCE over shooting incident

Claim: A video circulating on WhatsApp alleges that a DCE has been arrested for possessing firearms and shooting which ended up killing one person on Dec. 7, 2024. 

Source: WhatsApp Video

Verdict: True 

Explanation: The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition contacted a journalist from Tolon Radio who confirmed that the person arrested in the video is the DCE. He was arrested for possession of firearms and firing which is suspected to have killed one person. He was released the same day. The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr Gladstone Kumeko, Tolon District Police Commander, also confirmed the arrest and said the case has been transferred to the Northern Regional Police Command for further investigation.

 

CLAIM 13

Headline: False! Sale of old Metro Mass Transit buses predates NPP defeat

Claim: X user, @HassanGypsum, posted a video claiming Metro Mass Transit (MMT) management in Bantama, Ashanti region, is selling off buses as scraps after the NPP lost the 2024 elections.

Source: Fredamaquezz (X.com/@Hassangypsum) archived here

Verdict: False!

Explanation: The Ghana Fact-Checking Coalition (GFC) checks showed that although the Metro Mass Transit Limited is selling parts of broken buses as spare parts, the sale predates the 2024 General Election. The company advertised the sale of parts of broken buses in the dailies in October 2024. The MMTL policy is that functioning buses are not sold, only broken down ones to reduce maintenance cost. A further investigation by the Coalition revealed that this is not the first time the company had sold parts of broken down vehicles as spare parts. This was done in 2013 where the parts of 103 broken down buses were sold as spare parts. It is, therefore, not true that MMT started selling parts of broken down buses after the NPP lost the election.