NDC is EC’s Sweet Heart – Says AFAG

Charlotte Osei (left) in a conversation with Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and Obuobia Darko at the 20th anniversary celebration of Radio Gold on Tuesday

It seems the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, is suffering some credibility crisis in the face of growing concerns over having packed a supposed elections steering committee with known members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Even though a member of the said committee, Dr Karl Mark Arhin, a Deputy Director of Elections of the NDC who doubles as Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Service Scheme (NSS), has been compelled by circumstances to resign his membership of the committee, pressure group Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) believes the EC is still not worthy to be trusted. The pressure group has observed that the NDC is the EC's “sweetheart.”

Apart from Dr Arhin who has stepped down, other members of the said committee, including the Deputy Commissioner at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Joseph Akanjolenur Whittal, Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council (NPC), Francis Azumah and the Deputy Chairman of the National Commission on Civic Education in-charge of Operations (NCCE), Samuel Asare Akuamoah, have also been identified as members of the NDC.

 
Issues
Claims by the EC that it wrote to institutions which representatives are on the committee for them to nominate persons for the job have also proven to be false, as the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, has denied any such request from the Commission.

“The last time the board met, there was no letter before us from the Electoral Commission asking us to nominate someone… As far as I am concerned as chairman, there is no such letter,” he said in various radio interviews yesterday.

For these and other reasons, the leadership of AFAG said “It is 100% suggestive that the Electoral Commission (EC) is NDC’s 'sweetheart.'”

In a statement, the group noted: “It is so obvious that the EC (boss) cannot carry the courage of her own convictions” and that “the EC looks helpless.”

That, according to them, is because “Not a single decision has been taken by the EC boss to suggest she is a unifier and understands the expectations of stakeholders with respect to her office and what to do.”

 
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Bogus
AFAG does not only want the resignation of Joseph Whittal, Francis Azumah and Samuel Asare Akuamoah from the committee, but wants the EC to dissolve what it described as the 'highly unacceptable and bogus' steering committee now.

 
Justification
For members of the group, the EC should have consulted the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) before putting together this committee. They have therefore advised the Commission to do so and come to a reasonable position on this matter of enormous public interest, whiles expressing shock that the EC has turned down countless proposals for the Inter-Party Advisory Committee to meet.

AFAG questioned, “If this committee was a genuine one, why couldn’t she inform and discuss with members of IPAC? Indeed, the EC, 'NDC’s sweetheart,' could have expanded the membership of IPAC with these so-called persons and given a different name to it with an expanded mandate.”

Though the decisions of IPAC may not be binding, leadership of AFAG said, “It is clear that their role has been rendered redundant by the EC.”

AFAG regards the attitude of the EC as one “positively made evil,” adding, “it appears she did not earn her appointment on merit. As a result, she is so desperate to satisfy her paymasters in what looks like 'the deal must be executed.'”

Apart from that, AFAG said, “The EC (boss), simply put, appears arrogant and full of herself.”

That, it noted, was evident in the fact that “she has become defensive to any other stakeholder apart from the NDC,” which in members' opinion “looks involuntary because she has 'the deal to protect.'

Leadership of AFAG has since advised the EC boss “to re-think her ways since she has become too predictable with her actions.”

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
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