The Questionable Neutrality

Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, EC Boss

As the election petition hearing finally moves to its logical conclusion at the Supreme Court, one thing which is certain is that the electoral process of future elections in this country will never be the same irrespective of what decision the Supreme Court comes up with.   Whoever thought that one day the 'all powerful' and 'know all' Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan could be put in the witness box and look confused on the definition of 'over voting' despite his acclaimed 'excellent and celebrated' performance in office?  One major lesson that has been learnt at the Supreme Court in this respect is humility and that it doesn't pay to be arrogant whilst in public office.  The remark of the President of the panel to Dr. Afari-Gyan on his intimidating retort, 'go to court', sums it all.

The greatest challenge Ghanaians face today is trying to make sense of the apparent contradictions of the pink sheets, registration of voters, double, triple or quadruple polling station numbers, over voting, unsigned pink sheets etc. and trying to determine what really transpired during the 2012 elections and to assess whether the decision of the Court will be in one's party's favour or not.  Much of the anxiety comes from the fact that only a small part of the overall picture has so far been revealed at the Court and yet enough revelation of a gargantuan fraud planned and executed by the Electoral Commission (EC) and its associates.   There is no doubt in the minds of many Ghanaians that those who have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the sanctity of the ballot to sustain our democracy, toyed and gambled with the future of this country and must not be allowed to get away with it.

The neutrality of the EC was sacrificed in 1992 during the PNDC era under Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings when the ex-President grudgingly agreed to return the country to civilian democratic rule and established the EC to oversee the running of the general elections.  The ex-President did not hide his disdain for democracy and political parties and consequently appointed his sympathizers to the key positions of the EC to prove his point that democracy is a fallacy. The first Chairman of the Commission was the late Justice D. F. Annan, a PNDC member and consequently a fundamental principle of neutrality required by such an important Institution was debased.  Since the establishment of the EC, six general elections namely 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 have been held and all claimed to be free and fair but in reality most Ghanaians know that all the results were fraught with very serious errors some of which were enumerated by the Petitioners at the Supreme Court.  The first election under Justice D. F. Annan was a complete fiasco and led to the writing of the STOLEN VERDICT by the NPP.  In that election, the NPP boycotted the Parliamentary elections after it was detected that the Presidential election was rigged for Flt Lt JJ Rawlings.  Comically, General Erskine who stood as a Presidential Candidate and voted with his entire family at his polling station obtained ZERO votes after the ballot had been counted and this was a deliberate act to ridicule the General.  The culture of rigging was thus established and has since remained a practice at the EC.  The relative peace we have enjoyed in the past till today and the praises that have been showered on Dr. Afari-Gyan have been made possible by the peaceful nature of Ghanaians and not through any expert handling or conduct of any elections per se.

Prior to the 2012 elections, certain actions of the EC such as the creation of the 45 Constituencies at the last minute clearly showed that the EC was  not interested in running a smooth election campaign and no amount of criticism could make him change his mind.  In 2009 when the Biometric System was being introduced by the EC, the NPP suggested the complete overhaul of the electoral process since the cleaning of the Register was an attempt to solve one of the many problems affecting the electoral process and requested that the EC adopts the Electronic Voting (EV) with the Biometric Registration which was more comprehensive.  The Party further proposed the introduction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) similar to that being used by the Indian Government to reduce human errors experienced in the compilation of the results in the 2008 general elections but Dr. Afari-Gyan would not listen.  India has 714 million registered voters, 828,804 polling stations and 1055 political parties but after using the EV during their last general elections, it took the Electoral Commission of India only four and a half hours (4.5hrs) to declare the results as compared with previous elections which took more than seven days (7).  Sadly, Dr. Afari-Gyan's response to the proposal was that 'he would only allow it when his grandmother is able to operate a computer.' Ghanaians have been fooled in past elections but what is disheartening about the situation is that the man who presided over the mess has no regrets and from the look of things if he gets the opportunity again he will vent his anger on those who were responsible for his predicament.  The evidence Dr. Afari-Gyan gave in the witness box was evasive, conflicting, deceitful, confusing etc. and clearly epitomized somebody who was seriously trapped and trying desperately to extricate himself from that situation and pitching tent with the NDC at the Supreme Court indicated strongly that he did not stay neutral.  Ghana needs a Commissioner with a very high sense of integrity (Martin Hamidu type) and a team-player not a bigot.  

The people of this country have chosen democratic governance and therefore what needs to be done is to reform the Electoral Commission and make it extremely difficult for unscrupulous people to indulge in such dastardly acts which lead to the election of 'Error Presidents'.  The country is now polarized and we need to build bridges and try and reach consensus on a lot of issues.  There are so many areas that need to be reformed but I will restrict myself to three issues, namely, the selection of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission and his/her deputies, the selection of the members and the tenure of office of the Commission.

I am not in favour of any President appointing the Electoral Commissioner simply because our experience in the past has not been helpful; besides, the President is an interested party and will never appoint someone who is not sympathetic to his party.  I recommend that the Chief Justice  selects two Appeal Court Judges to face the Parliamentary Select Committee and one of the two selected for approval by Parliament.  I do not see the reasons why a person so selected must serve until he or she attains the age of seventy (70).  If experience is the underlining factor then our current situation has defeated that notion.  There is an Akan proverb which says 'when water stays too long in a cooler it stinks' and our present situation is a typical example.  What is needed on this job is HONESTY and that cannot be acquired through long service. A crook will most probably remain a crook.  The two deputies must be selected from civil society and be made to go through the same rigorous selection process like the Chairman.

Members of the Commission must also take some blame and bow down their heads in shame for allowing Dr. Afari-Gyan to run a 'one man show'.  If they had all been effectively involved, what happened in 2012 could have been minimized or avoided.  To prevent this collusion, all members of the Commission with the exception of the Commissioner and his deputies must be appointed by political parties.  The criteria for the selection of party representatives on the Commission must be based on the percentage of votes obtained during immediate past general elections.  The reason is simple – elections are conducted for political parties and therefore there should be no secrets to political parties in the planning and execution of any election.   I suggest four years for the tenure of office because experience is not the fundamental issue.  Besides, the permanent staff of the Commission are there to provide the much needed experience in planning and providing logistics.

[email protected] mailto:[email protected]

By Brig-Gen (Rtd) J. Odei