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EC Not Ready For Election 2016

By Abdul Aziz Yakubu
Opinion Charlotte Osei, Chairperson for the Electoral Commission
JUN 30, 2016 LISTEN
Charlotte Osei, Chairperson for the Electoral Commission

Election 2016 in Ghana is just a few months away but one wonder the kind of appropriate preparation the Electoral Commission (EC) is doing to ensure a peaceful election on November/December 7 2016.

The EC has since the election petition demonstrated their disregard to portions of the Supreme Court ruling that advised them to embark on electoral reforms. It is not surprising that the Supreme Court cautioned the EC to conduct the November 7 polls with a credible register. Obviously, there is no electoral reform greater than that of acquiring for the people of Ghana a new voters register. In the election petition, it was clear that there were a lot of voter irregularities across the country.

One would have thought that the EC would have taken serious measures to address the concerns raised by the Supreme Court. The rather heartbreaking truth is that, the EC is only playing a defensive role instead of an operational role that will ensure peace before, during, and after the 2016 elections.

The Supreme Court, in the Abu Ramadan’s case clearly established that the use of NHIS card as a voter registration qualification criterion was an illegality. This means that there were several registered voters on grounds of illegality. In other words we cannot go into an election with illegality. Again, the EC has refused to take any steps to cure the voters register.

The NPP presented a case for a new voter register and many other high profile personalities and civil organizations backed this case.

The EC, openly and formally engaged the political parties, religious bodies and civil society organizations who raised various concerns over the current register.

It is worth noting that, the EC, through its Chairperson and the Director of Public Affairs at the EC had their own conclusion before a panel was set to look into the matter. This prejudiced the outcome of the decision of the panel.

The NPP raised their concerns on the five member panel even before they started their work. They believed three of the five member panel named by the EC to supervise the public hearing were compromised.

Mr. Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, the NPP Director of Elections and Research stated that the chair of the panel, a retired judge, Justice VCRAC Crabbe and former moderator of the Methodist Church, Rev Dr Emmanuel Asante had openly stated their opposition to calls for a new Voters' Register. An open member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Nii Narku Quainoo, was a third panel member and could not sit on an independent panel to collate views on the controversial voters' register. The NPP’s argument could not convict any of the three to recuse themselves or the EC to form a truly neutral panel.

The panel came out with a decision that was obvious. In the words of Most Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante through Starr News said the panel looked into the two scenarios and allowed the EC to take its own decision.

“Our recommendation basically was that we need a credible voters’ register, we did not take sides, we did not say create a new one or this but we said a number of things should be put in place to ensure that there is a credible voters’ register.

“So that was left with the Electoral Commission to decide on how they are going to ensure a credible register...we would make our recommendations but it is up to the EC to say whether our recommendations are acceptable or not,” Rev. Asante said.

Since the outcome of the five member panel was not binding on the EC, it was really a waste of time and state resources to engage the political parties, religious bodies and civil society organizations on this issue since the EC would at the end of the day decide whether their recommendation was acceptable or not. At least we already knew their position before the panel started their work.

Everyone in any part of the world knows that a credible register is one of the means in which elections can be accepted as free and fair. There is no doubt that the credibility of our voters register is not questionable. The question here is whether or not the audit of the existing register as we are made to believe would indeed clean the register and save us from future violence on it?

The EC have not clearly told us how they are going to clean up the register which currently is not credible.

The EC’s set up a biased public forum after they had refused to cooperate with an impartial one put together by the IEA, an accredited body which deals with matters of public concern in a run-up to every general election since 2008. Literally, they (EC) refused to attend the IEA presentation by Professor Attahiru Jega, the former chairman of INEC Nigeria, with the excuse that they (EC) have their own plans to interact with him.

On 16th September, 2015, the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) held a demonstration which was met with the most serious police brutalities, ever since the inception of the 4th Republic. This was a case which could have been avoided if the EC paid attention to the group. Instead, behind police tactics they (EC) made the EC premises a security zone or a no-go area. Instead of making efforts to hear them, the EC boss made sarcastic comment about the LMVCA petition and has managed, with unflinching support of the NDC government and their commentators rubbished any calls for a new voters register to ensure credible elections in 2016.

Again, the EC without the knowledge of the Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) set up and subsequently approved a National Election Steering Committee for the upcoming elections claiming that the decision was entirely an executive decision under Section 7 of Act 451.

The EC has explained that the recently inaugurated National Election Steering Committee (NESC) is merely a platform for information sharing and not for electoral operational purposes. “The NESC is not an operational decision-making body; it’s merely a platform to share information. It cannot decide, for instance, on the date of elections, the movement of ballot boxes and any other operations of the elections,” Mrs Charlotte Osei (EC Boss) in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic in her office in Accra.

The EC has failed to tell us that information the NESC will be sharing.

The EC again appointed Dr Karl Mark Arhin, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Service Scheme, who is also a ranking member of the NDC as a member of the NESC.

Apart from the fact that the IPAC was not consulted, they did not know the objective of the NESC. The NESC appears to be a duplication of what other committees like the IPAC were already doing.

Commenting on the development that the NESC has not been suspended, the national chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Bernard Mornah told Starr News the EC’s position on the matter appears confusing. "I’m surprised that today they (EC) will come out and say something different, yesterday we were under the impression that they had put the committee on hold since their role appeared to be a duplication of what other committees like the IPAC were already doing,” he stated.

Clearly, the EC have lost touch with IPAC or does not want truly want to listen to the concerns of IPAC but want to move on with their own agenda.

One vital tool to a credible election is a credible register but the EC feels that changing their logo is more important because they “… love it…” they “… like it...” This was her response to her critics when she met the press. This again, is gross incompetence.

On 5th May 2016, the Supreme Court gave a ruling on the Abu Ramadan and Evans Nimako case against the EC ordering them (EC) the to “take steps to delete or “clean” the current register of voters to comply with the provisions of the 1992 constitution and applicable to the laws of Ghana and also afford such persons the opportunity to re-register”.

The EC deliberately decided to give their own interpretation to this order; giving rise to a second suit on 23rd June 2016 on the same matter.

The EC chair being a lawyer herself should know better. Her attitude right from the time she took office till now is an indication that she is being manipulated by the NDC.

No wonder the NDC are always on her defense as though they communicate for the EC.

This further deepens the claims that she contested as a Parliamentary candidate of the NDC in 2008.

Her disobedience to the orders of the EC is a clear disobedience to Ghana. Her consistent disregard to the calls of prominent Ghanaian institutions and individuals including the SC deepens again the claims of her Nigerian background. It is clear she does not care what happens to Ghana should there be electoral violence as a result of her negligence and desperate schemes to please her pay masters. After all, Ghana is not her root.

This is a clear indication that the EC is NOT prepared for the 2016 elections.

It appears the EC is seriously implementing misplaced priorities without paying serious attention to the one thing that could plunge Ghana into chaos.

One thing the EC must know is that Ghana is not immune from conflicts. African countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and Kenya were all once the beacons of peace and stability in Africa until doubtful elections brought about conflicts, loss of lives and properties.

A new voter’s register will only benefit Ghana but not a particular political party. An acceptable victory or defeat lies in a clean voter register.

The EC must not take the peace we are enjoying for granted. They (the EC) must be seen to be proactive in organizing this year’s election as our laws provides.

Abdul Aziz Yakubu
Social Communicator
Tamale

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