A lesson for the Electoral Commission?
The controversy over the Electoral Commission’s proposed National Election Steering Committee (NESC) reminded me of what a friend went through when recently he was invited to serve on the Management Board of his old school.
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He told me that to his astonishment, in order to complete the membership process, he was required to prove that he had no criminal record!
The headmaster of the Senior High School in the Eastern Region, actually sent a police officer from the regional police headquarters to my friend’s office in Accra. His mission? He was there to take his fingerprints in order to verify at the Police Headquarters that he really had no police record!
Even though his old school knew him and his status well enough to want him on the Board, they still wanted police confirmation that he was of good character.
Contrast the school’s meticulousness with what has emerged about the Electoral Commission’s way of doing things.
On Monday, February 8, the EC inaugurated the NESC which it said is to see to the smooth running of Election 2016, scheduled for November. It explained that the 18 members were drawn from various state institutions, including the army, the police, the National Media Commission, the National Service Scheme, the National Peace Council, the National Commission for Civic Education and National Security.
But did the EC do any background checks on the NESC nominees? Apparently not, going by the ensuing developments.
News of the inauguration immediately generated vehement protests, notably from political pressure group Let My Vote Count Alliance and the main opposition, the New Patriotic Party.
They expressed suspicion about the neutrality of the committee in view of the fact that some of its members were known to be members of the ruling National Democratic Congress. Indeed, one of them, Dr Karl Mark Arhin of the National Service, identified as an NDC parliamentary candidate, stepped down following the agitation.
The EC’s defence was that the committee members had been nominated by the various institutions and thus they were not nominated on the basis of their political affiliation.
Nevertheless, bearing in mind the sensitivity of any measure to do with Election 2016, clearly, the EC should have taken the trouble to do background checks on the people, regarding their involvement in political party activities.
Although many have questioned even the need for the NESC, perhaps if they had all been seen as non-partisan, there wouldn’t be so much suspicion of the EC’s motives.
And it was bewildering that just as people were beginning to congratulate the EC for suspending the NESC following a consensus reportedly reached against the NESC at a meeting of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee meeting a week ago, it has again chosen to stoke the fire with an explanation that is evidently an afterthought, an attempted back-pedalling.
In an interview published in the Daily Graphic of Tuesday, February 23, Electoral Commission Chairperson Charlotte Osei now says that the Steering Committee “is merely a platform for information sharing and not for electoral operational purposes.”
Mrs Osei explained: “We as a commission have never coordinated information on elections properly … the NESC is only to improve the electoral system to make it more inclusive and transparent.”
She also expressed concern that some political parties were taking entrenched positions on national matters.
This latest twist only leads to more questions. If the NESC is to ensure a “more inclusive and transparent” electoral system, why were all the major political parties not invited to nominate representatives for it?
What information will such a body have to share with the EC that will not impact on Election 2016?
Also, if the committee’s work has no bearing on “electoral operational purposes” for the general election, then is it needed?
Furthermore, on the issue of some having entrenched positions, it seems to me that others could accuse Mrs Osei, too, of having fixed positions, first regarding her opposition to a new Voters Register and now on the NESC.
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Anyway, maybe the reaction to the NESC is the wake-up call that Mrs Osei and the other six Commissioners need to fully appreciate people’s fears about Election 2016.
And perhaps the EC has something to learn from the head of that Senior High School in the Eastern Region.
The Writer is a columnist (Thoughts of a Native Daughter) in a The Mirror newspaper