Heads must roll at EC — IEA fellow
A senior research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Political Science Lecturer with the University of Ghana, Dr Ransford Gyampo, has called for heads to roll at the Electoral Commission (EC) to restore its credibility.
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According to him, the activities of certain officials, especially the deputy chairman in charge of operations, Mr Amadu Sulley, have given rise to the institution being discredited by Ghanaians.
“Amadu Sulley must be penalised for approving and supervising a botched voters registration exercise which has been another embarrassing episode for the EC,” Dr Gyampo, who is also a member of the Electoral Commission’s Electoral Review Committee, Dr Gyampo stated.
Voters resgistration
Mr Amadu, in a press statement released last week, announced the commencement of the continuous voters registration exercise for persons who had just turned 18 and those who could not register when the last registration process was opened.
That singular action landed the EC in a battle with the political parties, who are claiming they were not consulted.
The parties quote copiously articles from the Constitutional Instruments which suggest that before the EC undertakes any such registration exercise, the parties which are stakeholders, must be informed.
It is not only the political parties which were not informed. It appears some of the commissioners even at the EC were not consulted either before the registration process was announced, Dr Gyampo hinted.
Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who has had a reduced role at the commission ahead of his official retirement next month, had to intervene with a counter-press release last Tuesday, suspending the voters registration exercise.
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The suspension comes in the wake of another gaffe by the commission which has resulted in the cancellation of the district-level elections.
Speaking to Joy News, Dr Gyampo said Mr Amadu must not be left off the hook this time.
He said the suspension of the voters registration exercise highlighted a "bigger problem" within the EC.
He said there had been cases of unilateral decisions taken by some EC members which did not augur well for the commission, and mincing no words, Dr Gyampo insisted that Amadu's "misdemeanour" was one of such cases.
Mistrust
He said it was about time public officers were made to account for their actions that ultimately embarrassed their institutions.
Dr Gyampo said the EC was now suffering from "mistrust" among its members.
According to Dr Gyampo, the “EC no more operates as a commission”, adding that the lack of proper consultation and communication with stakeholders does not augur well to redeem the seeming dented image of the electoral regulatory body.
“It seems that the EC doesn’t operate as a Commission. You have certain individuals, I don’t know whether by sheer incompetence, who try to arrogate certain duties and responsibilities to themselves and they ignore the fact that they work with stakeholders. Over the years, this attitude has dented our electoral politics and has ushered the whole nation into chaotic scenes and confusion.
“If you go to the EC or the members of the commission, some will tell you that they are not even aware that such an order was given,” Dr Gyampo remarked.
Political parties – the National Democratic Congress, the New Patriotic Party and the Progressive People’s Party - chide the Electoral Commission for failing to inform them as major stakeholders before the exercise commenced.