EC’s posturing could erode public confidence – Abu Jinapor

A private legal practitioner, Abu Jinapor, believes  the Electoral Commission’s conduct could erode the trust that the people have in it.

He said this on Citi FM's current show, The Big Issue.

“I think the posturing of the Electoral Commission of Ghana is extremely worrying. I am a believer and supporter of state institutions but this electoral commission and the way it has conducted itself to date, there is the real potential or tendency to completely erode public confidence and trust in the electoral commission,” he said.

Abu Jinapor added that the actions of the EC are not good for Ghana’s  democracy.

“I believe that it doesn't bode well for our democracy that the electoral commission will place interpretations on an order which was so clear to all of us apart from the EC and the NDC. Even when a member of the judge came out to explain it, the EC still ignored it. the Chief Justice is said to have said that they would not allow the electoral commission to plunge this country into chaos; that is a serious indictment on the EC.”

For several months, the method that people used as identification cards to register has been a big subject of litigation.

One, Evans Mensah and a former youth organiser of the People's National Congress (PNC), Abu Ramadan, sued the EC over whether it was legal for some Ghanaians to have registered with NHIS cards.

His argument was that the use of the NHIS cards were not proof enough that these people were Ghanaians.

The ruling followed a suit filed by Abu Ramadan, and one, Evans Nimako, who in 2014 won a lawsuit that barred the use of NHIS cards for registration of potential voters.

The two, among other reliefs, wanted the current register declared inappropriate for the November polls.

But the EC after studying the ruling said it's understanding did not suggest the use of any new process to delete the names of those who registered with NHIS cards, since there are already laid down procedures for expunging ineligible names.

In another ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the EC to delete the names of some 56,000 people who the EC say registered with NHIS cards and any other persons who may have registered with the NHIS cards.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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