Reform the Policies of the EC

The Electoral Commission plays a focal role in the consolidation of the democratic gains of the state. The EC as an independent state institution is often exposed to public pressure and external ridicule in the performance of its constitutionally-mandated functions.

The performance of the EC in the 2012 and 2020 elections has exposed it to political attacks which have seriously affected its institutional image, and so a rebranding is needed to carve a new image with an outstanding reputation.

The EC must embark on internal policy review on a number of activities, which may not be limited to: the compilation of registers for its elections, the conduct of IPAC meetings, and the conduct of general elections in Ghana. This proposed policy review is needed to give its image a refreshed status. A number of hostilities amongst the Commission and other parties including political parties and persons gives it a bad corporate image.

The Commission is required by law to compile and revise the register of voters at such periods as may be determined by Law as indicated in Article 45 (a) of the Constitution. This particular function generates controversies every election cycle, especially Parliamentary and Presidential election cycles. These disputes amongst the EC, CSOs and other political parties can be resolved with a policy review with regard to the compilation of registers.

In the article I titled “Refine the Independence of the Commission”, I indicated that it is customary of the Commission to compiling the register of voters every eight (8) years, and so it (the Commission) should make its institutional policy of having new roll of voters every eight (8) years. But the use of a modern technology may last longer than this number of years.

The Commission should make it an institutional policy of compiling new registers every eight years or anytime its systems and equipment become obsolete or whichever occurs earlier. Priority should be given to the order of the functionality of the equipment and systems of the EC. This will resolve, in part or full, the persistent challenges the political parties and CSOs have with the EC.

The Election management body schedules IPAC meetings to create a transparent system. This platform should be used to establish global standards for managing elections by incorporating the inputs of Civil Society and political parties in its decisions where necessary.

More Civil Society Organisations should be given an opportunity to participate in these meetings. The Commission, even in allowing more representation of CSOs, should not be too lenient in integrating the proposals of parties and CSOs to impair its independence.

The conduct of the 2020 general elections was excellent notwithstanding some challenges experienced in some parts of the country. The Commission should review its performance in national elections and strategise to mitigate the possibility of the occurrence of the undesired happenings in the elections.

The Commission should outline proper procedures for the certifying of election results and their declarations at the regional collation centers. The 2020 experiences at some of the regional collation centers were terrible. The omission of the results of an entire constituency is intolerable and must not be repeated in future elections.

Some Civil Society Organisations should be accredited to be allowed to join the EC’s Strong Room. The Strong Room must not be abolished as IEA suggested in 2014. The EC needs to constitute a Strong Room with representatives of all contesting political parties and people with integrity from some of the CSOs. The EC is often accused of massaging electoral figures in the Strong Room.

A new C.I should be enacted to address this challenge by indicating the CSOs to form part of the representatives in the Strong Room. Laws are made to address the problems of society as and when the problems occur. The continuous complains stemming from the Strong Room indicates there is an urgent need to reform the composition of the persons and institutions in the Strong Room.

The collation of results in the Strong Room, and the declaration of them thereafter, significantly affect the overall accomplishment of the EC in its conduct of elections. The 2020 declarations were fraught with errors, which the Commission described as innocuous and inadvertent. The errors might have been occasioned by the pressures on the party to declare the results within its stipulated time or computational errors transferred to the Commission’s Chairperson.

The Commission should internally investigate this incidence and formulate a proper policy for the declaration of results. There is an impairment to its external institutional reputation even if these errors are harmless. The Commission should set up an internal mechanism that can be used to establish or confirm the validity of the results collated before declaring them.

The declaration of collated national election figures and the correction of such figures, impair the outstandingly-built reputation of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. The Commission should immediately take very bold steps to review some of its policies and activities to restore the damage done to it, as an independently-established state agency with great character.

Emmanuel Kwabena Wucharey.

Economics Tutor, Advocate and Religion Enthusiast.