New EC Chair's appointment. . .Akufo-Addo urges Prez to abide by Constitution
The 2016 Presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged the President to abide by the Constitution and allow the Council of State to do its work openly and transparently in the appointment of a new Chairman for the Electoral Commission (EC).
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“I would respectfully urge the President to abide by the Constitution and allow the Council of State do its work openly and transparently so that the final product will engender broad public confidence,” he said when he addressed a packed hall of students at the University of Cape Coast in a meeting of the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) on Saturday, April 18, 2015.
He said that was important for the strengthening of the country’s democracy.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo, this was the first time such an appointment was being made under the Fourth Republican Constitution – hence the anxiety of the public that we should get it right.
“I have no doubt that the President, the avowed democrat that he is, will not fail the people of Ghana in this regard.”
Contributing to the ongoing debate on who replaces the soon-to-retire Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, Nana Akufo-Addo explained that the Fourth Republican Constitution made it explicitly and unambiguously clear about who had the responsibility to appoint the Chairman of the EC.
In an apparent response to some who say President Mahama must be left alone to select the new EC boss, Nana Akufo-Addo’s message to them was simple.
“All citizens of Ghana have a stake in the appointment, hence, the importance of public opinion in the process. The framers of the Constitution were keenly aware of the impropriety inherent in allowing the President, a political player, to play a critical role in selecting the political referee. Hence the constitutional arrangements of Article 70(2) of our Constitution,” he said.
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Article 70(2) provides that “The President shall, acting on the advice of the Council of State, appoint the Chairman, Deputy Chairmen, and other members of the Electoral Commission.”
He continued, “In many, many other jurisdictions across the world, whoever successfully emerges as head of the Electoral Commission is put through a rigorous selection procedure, which includes wide stakeholder consultation, vetting by a committee, often in public, and finally, approval by a special majority (⅔ or ¾) of the legislature. Appointment by the President is then a formality”.