Hanna Tetteh Condemns ‘personal Attacks’ On Charlotte Osei

Foreign Affairs Minister and Member of Parliament for the Awutu Senya West Constituency, Hanna Tetteh, is livid over what she calls unsubstantiated allegations and sometimes 'vicious personal attacks', targeted at the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei.

It is unclear what the Minister is irked about, but her comments come barely a day after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central; Kennedy Agyapong, launched a scathing attack on Charlotte Osei; alleging that she was appointed in exchange for sex.

The loudmouth MP said this while addressing supporters of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) at Asokwa; a suburb of Kumasi.

In a quote attributed to him by Kumasi-based Ultimate FM, Mr. Agyapong said some highly placed officials in government told Osei to “bring your buttocks in exchange of EC Chair position.”

He also said; 'if indeed Nana Addo (the party's running mate) wins according to the pink sheets and Charlotte Osei dares to rig the elections by twisting our arms in favour of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), we will not allow it to happen in Ghana.”

Without making reference to the MP's comment, Madam Hanna Tetteh in a Facebook post on Monday June 27, said Charlotte Osei was appointed based on merit, and that those who have concerns about her activities should speak out but with decorum.

The post read, “The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission is a qualified lawyer who has worked as a competent professional throughout her legal career and who also is the immediate past Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic education. To suggest that she had no competence to be appointed Electoral Commissioner and to subject her to a vicious personal attack is most unfortunate.”

She added that, “Any citizen can complain about the Electoral Commission, the way they are executing their mandate and preparing towards the upcoming elections. Those are the benefits of living in a democracy, but the personal attacks on the EC Chairperson are uncalled for, and are designed to undermine her credibility and her leadership of the organization. No political party is contesting elections against the electoral commission, we should not undermine the integrity of the organization or the Chairperson on the back of allegations that have not, and most likely cannot be substantiated.”

Charlotte Osei is the country's first female chair of the Electoral Commission, taking over from its long-serving chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan.

She had previously worked as the head of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE). She was appointed by President Mahama and sworn in on June 30, 2015.

Charlotte Osei's beauty enough to re-brand EC  – Adu-Asare

A former National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the Adentan Constituency, and now a Presidential staffer, Kojo Adu-Asare, in April 2016 , suggested that, the Electoral Commission does not need any re-branding since the beauty of its chairperson; Charlotte Osei can take care of such issues.

“This new logo is not necessary, Charlotte, your beauty alone is re-branding, but what will give the EC credibility is your ability to conduct a credible election” he added.

Mr. Adu-Asare made the comment on Accra based Asempa FM's Ekosii Sen programme, when the issue about the EC logo came up for discussion.

His comment was deemed b y critics as sexist and inappropriate.

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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie