Moderator Adds His Voice

Rt Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey has joined the long list of Ghanaians who do not see the wisdom in going ahead with the creation of 45 more constituencies in the country at this time.

His disapproval is coming on the heels of one already expressed by Bishop Matthew Addae-Mensah, General Overseer of the Gospel Light International Church and an executive member of the association of charismatic churches in Ghana.

These men who have damned the consequences and stated their minds have done so because they are only reflecting the position of their flocks.

It is amazing that the EC is not tapping from the free survey report at its disposal. Many people have expressed opprobrium at the EC's move although they would prefer being left out of the glare of publicity.

The church has come under serious criticism for its seeming apathy about the rush to create more constituencies by the EC in spite of the obvious reasons why that should not be.

It is our expectation that by the intervention of such leading personalities from the spiritual front and elsewhere, more would follow suit. The role of prayers would be limited when people disregard the opportunities at their disposal to correct societal ills. What this means is that our prayers do not stand any dog's chance of changing things when we fold our arms and allow institutional blunders such as the Dr. Afari Gyan-led Electoral Commission (EC) is poised to do.

So how many more voices of dissent does the Chairman of the EC need to rescind his obnoxious decision which today stands as one of the scariest threats to national security?

It is time we reviewed the accolades we have showered on the EC over the years; the electoral reforms which saw the transfer to the archives of outmoded processes of picture-less voter identification cards and opaque ballot boxes are not the initiatives of the EC.

Such strides are the outcome of painstaking engagement by the political parties, development partners and civil society organizations.

We cannot think of any progressive electoral reform attributable to the EC and would suggest that Afari-Gyan listens to the people of this country and stop the foul obstinacy.

The messed-up voters register which has changed the sex of males to females and vice versa and the involuntary transfer of names of voters from some constituencies in Accra to the Central Region, are challenges whose remedying we demand now and not the pandering to the whims of those at the helm by a Commission which is by law expected to be independent.

The challenge-riddled district level elections and by-elections managed by the EC in recent times are not enviable testimonies about the efficiency of the Commission in running a credible election this time around. The jerky manner in which the Constitutional Instruments related to the creation of the constituencies have been laid, withdrawn and re-presented before Parliament, bespeaks an EC not well composed and prepared for the task it has set itself to do.