Media General, operators of TV3, has dispelled accusations that its projection of parliamentary majority for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was a deliberate act to rig the elections in favor of the ruling party.
According to a statement by management of the media conglomerate, the TV station’s coverage of the election and its subsequent projection was not intended to pre-determine the outcome of the election in favor of the governing party.
It explained that the projection made by TV3 was based on results it had received at the time and changes were made to the projection after it received contrary information and thus, it strongly objects the assertion that its call of the parliamentary election was as part of a scheme to manipulate the election results in NPP’s favor.
“We wish to state that all the projections we made on the number of parliamentary seats by the parties were based on the information we had received at a particular time. The projections which were made were not in any way intended to be the definitive results of the elections.
It must be noted that the projections were changed from time to time as we received new information, which were analyzed. Our election coverage was not intended to favour any political party or candidate and any contrary perception is deeply regretted,” the statement by management read.
The statement added “we take this opportunity to assure our audience and other stakeholders including political parties, of our continued commitment to provide balanced and impartial reportage.”
As part of its coverage of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, TV3 projected that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had won 149 seats in the parliamentary election as against the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which, per the TV station’s projection, had won 126 seats.
This, however, turned out to be inaccurate as certified results by the EC put the number of seats won by the NPP at 137 and that of the NDC at 136.
The opposition NDC has since called out the TV station for allegedly aiding the rigging of the December polls. General Secretary of the party at a press conference accused the media entity and others of churning out “fake figures” and challenged them to produce the source of the said figures.
MP-elect for the Tamale Central Constituency, Murtala Mohammed who was speaking on TV3’s morning show took on the TV station calling on management to penalize staff of the station who were responsible for the blunder.
