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11.09.2013 Elections

Calls For Afari-Gyan To Resign: It’s Unfortunate And Disgraceful

By PeaceFMonline
Dr K. Afari GyanDr K. Afari Gyan
11.09.2013 LISTEN

The New twist that has emerged after the ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) on the election petition case are calls for Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) to resign.

Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG) and other political kingpins are of the view that if new electoral reforms are made, because Afari Gyan will still be in office, it will not be implemented; hence the need for him to go.

This was after the EC called on political parties and other stakeholders to submit recommendations and suggestions to help in electoral reforms.

However, speaking in an interview on Citi Eyewitness news, Tuesday, General Secretary of the People's National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah described the numerous calls as 'unfortunate and disgraceful'.

According to him, 'it smacks on the beauty of our democracy and undermines institutional capacity and their existence'.

He does not understand why 'the same chairman of the EC who has conducted elections over the years and who in the year 2000 was acclaimed to be the best by the group that AFAG belongs' is now being vilified.

He alluded that if the New Patriotic Party (NPP); 'the group that AFAG backs'; went to court because they did not believe the results of the elections, then 'they certainly do not believe that the Supreme Court did a good job' especially when 'it (SC) upheld the results of the EC'.

'If they call for Afari Gyan to go, I am sure that they will ask that we should even scrape the SC because it has not ruled in their favour. Such mentality must not be allowed to foster in our society. It is not AFAG who appointed Afari Gyan or any member of the Commission' he insisted.

Responding to a portion of Justice Dotse's (one of the nine justices of the SC which presided over the case) ruling which states: 'so far as I am concerned, Dr Afari Gyan has cut a very poor figure of himselfthe much acclaimed competent election administrator both nationally and internationally has evaporated into thin air once his portfolio has come under the close scrutiny of the court', Bernard Mornah suggested that once his (Justice Dotse) view was not part of the judges who formed the majority in the final ruling, it cannot carry the day.

'The fact that Justice Dotse has expressed his view does not mean that his views carry the day because his views could not convince the other justices to think the same way. If there is anything to go by, the EC should rather be angry at the political parties for allowing their supporters to engage in any malpractices (during the 2012 election)' he added.

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