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26.05.2020 Feature Article

The Referee & Her Comical Actors

The Referee  Her Comical Actors
26.05.2020 LISTEN

In a game where no one takes blame for offensive play or wrongdoing, rationality turns to be irrational as absurdity takes centre stage. And in the end, everyone pays a heavy price.

I'm afraid this trend is a harbinger of things to come. But I don't know how they will turn out in the months ahead. So, If you think you're too smart to outsmart everyone, let's play by the rules of the game.

Problem is, I don't even know where to start it, who to blame and how we got here. It seems like a puzzle carefully orchestrated by some invisible hands.

Remember the allegation of the bloated register? Thousands of foreigners were allegedly bussed from neighbouring Togo to register and vote. In some precincts or polling stations where vigilance seemed virtually extinct pupils who'd not attained voting age of 18, voted for a particular party. And it was also understood that the EC's computers got hacked!

And who did it?
NDC did it, says the ruling party.
NPP did it, argues the opposition party.
None of them seems to take responsibility for wrongdoing. After all, the buck doesn't stop at their doorsteps. It stops at the Commissioner's office.

In the past and now, both parties have vehemently criticised the match commissioner (s).

The current chair has been vilified, scolded and told to sit up.

Her duties among other things are to ensure there's fair play and level playing field. In other words, conduct free and fair elections. Paradoxically, the actors have managed to make the turf rough and turn around to accuse the referee of bad officiating. Somehow,, they've been trying to shift the goalposts to suit their whims. And some have even made an attempt to bend the rules, ostensibly to undermine and discredit the referee.

Is this really fair?
Speaking of the referee ...Ghana isn't bereft with men and women of integrity. So, don't go outside looking for saints, patriots or angels. Because they already live amongst us. We've the nerds, the geniuses and the gung-hos. But what's the way forward?

Let's learn to respect, appreciate and accord the match commissioner the latitude she deserves because if God even dispatches Angel Gabriel here to officiate the game, the value will be the same.

Would a tough EC chair be the solution?
Maybe yes or maybe not. An election expert holds the view that the country needs the likes of Dr. Afari Gyan.

"Generally, the EC Chairperson must be seen to be a no-nonsense person. One who must call the shot without fear or favour carries his own weight, not fickle or feckless, unflapped by cash and wants a good name and not a tainted one. Such paragons actually exist in this country despite the current ongoings."

But did they not scold and vilify Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan? The man thought to be tough, hard as nails, independent and carried his own weight.

Did they spare his predecessor, Mrs Charlotte Osei? Aren't their fingers already on the trigger aiming to shoot down this EC chair?

Meanwhile, NDC has requested from the EC a training manual for voters registration officials ahead of its planned exercise. The party has also asked for the training manual for political party agent for the exercise, including other documents and forms relevant to the 2020 election registration exercise.

A letter to the EC Chairperson signed by the party’s General Secretary Johnson Aseidu Nketia read:

“The National’ Democratic Congress (NDC) has become aware of an ongoing nationwide training exercise being conducted by the Electoral Commission to prepare its staff to be deployed for the conduct of voter registration prior to the 2020 general elections”.

The said letter went on to say that: “As a major stakeholder whose agents have important functions to perform during the exercise to ensure its credibility, we are by this letter officially requesting the commission to supply the NDC with the above-named documents and any other material that would enable the party prepare our agents adequately for same," it concluded.

Criticisms
The NDC has been critical and publicly opposed plans by the electoral Commission to develop new voters register for the 2020 polls. The party fears, the electoral body will rig the election for the ruling NPP.

However, an impeccable source at the EC office says that idea is far remote.

"The impact of one or a few individuals in the EC to cause damage even at the very top isn't much likely because to the extent of a possible rigging... It's tough to hide things. This is because some low rankers or others have strong affiliations and may give hints on how to beat the system to the disadvantage of one side but overall system will be tough."

The expert also sheds light on some happenings in the EC that probably the general public isn't privy to.

"In my years as s consultant there, one weak link was the inability to pull out kids and obvious foreigners once registered. In some communities of like minds what they bring in is what is counted so, if the agents working there are followers of one side imagine.

Then the usual tricks of messing their biometric feature ie prints so they use manual system."

The source further pointed out that:
"Some also during votes counting deploy various tricks to reduce the number of votes to a party in the area.

Generally, the systems make it tight. We saw how last election, they tried to do the right things and use electronics to beat the system . There' s always something some may try but getting a unanimous cheating syndicate isn't easy. There are some fine career officers in there," the source stated.

That said, I think the EC must be mindful of one major thing: And it is the institution's reputation or credibility. They can't redeem it if they allow the politicians to drag it in the sludge. And the expert agrees.

"Exactly. They should switch from the focus on politicians to the citizen as the key beneficiary. The IPAC etc should be advisory and not the current decision-making system that suits both parties. The irony is when they're in office it's ok but when they're out of office it's not,"

Will the EC use the vendor?
The EC has decided not to work with the vendor they did the biometric system. What's the implication?

According to the expert, if the fine print indicated that the electoral body owned the data then how does it use that without paying for something like that?"

She quizzed.
"So even though under biometric some arguments for the new register 'sounds funny' because the truth might be tougher. With many people told by NDC not to register for NIA card, it may be a hoist by thine own petard situation. My worry is the time is pretty close and that makes it prone to suspicions etc which may not be warranted," the source said.

By Gordon Offin-Amaniampong

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