Political parties hail choice of new EC Chair
Five political parties have lauded President John Mahama’s choice to replace the country’s longest serving Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who retired a few weeks ago.
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In separate interviews, party executives who spoke on behalf of the political parties said the President’s choice was welcome and that they were ready to work with Mrs Charlotte Osei, who was, until her appointment, the Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).
The political parties are the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the People’s National Convention (PNC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The parties also asked that the new chairman to stay focused in her new duties, especially with respect to electoral reforms.
CPP – Ivor Greenstreet
Speaking on behalf of the CPP, Mr Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary, said he believed that the President’s appointee was capable of taking the EC to the next level.
“We as a political party are ready to cooperate with her with respect to ongoing discussions concerning electoral reforms, which are administrative in nature, as well as other potential reforms which are more constitutional in nature.
“And we believe that with her legal background, many of these things will not be difficult for her to grasp in the shortest period of time,” he said.
Mr Greenstreet was optimistic that with the other commissioners and experienced staff of the EC, Mrs Osei would be able to work in the best interest of the country.
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NDC – Koku Anyidoho
The acting General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Koku Anyidoho, said, “Our position as a party is that we welcome the decision by the President to choose a new chairperson for the EC in consonance with the tenets of the 1992 Constitution.”
He noted that the new EC Chairperson being a female added to the NDC’s agenda of leveraging women more when it came to helping in the governance process.
He said he was not surprised that the other parties had also welcomed the choice of Mrs Osei, an indication that there was consensus that she was capable.
Mr Anyidoho noted that Mrs Osei was just one of seven commissioners at the EC, saying that with their collaboration Ghana’s democracy would reach higher heights.
“She cannot afford to disappoint and we don’t hope that she disappoints,” he stressed.
“As political parties and civil society groupings, our emotions and our feelings do not override the Constitution of the Republic and so if people are saying that there should have been consultation, wider consultation, broader consultation, those are feelings and emotions,” he added.
PPP – Kofi Siaw
A leading member of the PPP, Mr Kofi Asamoah Siaw, was, however, disappointed that the same process used in 1992 and thereafter to appoint chairpersons for the EC had been used in the appointment of the new chairperson.
“We hoped that we would have a lot more transparency in the process. We in the PPP do not want to trust any government or President now and in the future with the authority the way it is in appointing the chairperson for a sensitive institution such as that of the EC,” he said.
He believed that going forward, the new chairperson must quickly take on board the concerns of the political parties for immediate electoral reforms to begin.
PNC – Bernard Mornah
The General Secretary of the PNC, Mr Bernard Mornah, said his party expected the new EC chairperson to operate an open-door policy to engage with all stakeholders on the matter of transforming and reforming the EC to meet modern trends.
He said his worry was that he did not see any dramatic transformation at the NCCE when Mrs Osei headed that institution before being appointed to the EC job.
NPP - Paul Afoko
In a statement signed by its National Chairman, Mr Paul Awetami Afoko, the NPP described the appointment of the new EC chairperson as another feat for women in the country and prayed that she lived up to the high expectation of all Ghanaians.
It said Mrs Osei came to the position at a time when the whole nation was expectant of an electoral system that was widely accepted by all stakeholders.
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“We hope she will contribute immensely to the development of our democratic dispensation and its growth by helping to resolve the many challenges she is inheriting from Dr Afari-Gyan, her predecessor,” it said.
Judicial independence undermined
A senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Legon, Mr Ransford Gyampoh, however, said the President’s appointment of a new EC chairperson while a case regarding who was qualified to appoint a chairperson was pending at the Supreme Court had undermined judicial independence in Ghana.
“For the President or the appointing authority to go ahead to make this appointment, in my view, undermines judicial independence and the appointing authority may be cited for contempt of court,” he stated.
He said even though he was aware of comments to the effect that what the Supreme Court was seeking to do was merely advisory as to who must appoint the EC boss, “by custom and by convention we all know that when a matter is pending before a court, as a sign of respect for the rule of law and independence of the Judiciary you allow the processes at the court to terminate before you go ahead to do some of these things”.
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According to Mr Gyampoh, what had happened was an unnecessary affront and attack on the independence of the Judiciary.
He, however, noted that the choice of Mrs Osei was a plus for the Mahama administration, as it did not only increase women’s representation at the EC but also enabled the President to steer off controversy.
“She is not known to be actively partisan in a manner that will undermine objectivity in the discharge of her new duties,” he said.
Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh