The EC must walk cautiously
The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei, is in the news once again for both positive and negative reviews following submissions she made at an event held in Accra last Tuesday.
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Among the positive appraisals from the public is the institution of a five-year development plan aimed at ensuring that the Electoral Commission (EC) will fulfil its mandate stipulated by law to the letter.
According to her, the objectives of the plan are to ensure that the EC will become legally and functionally independent and also maintain a relationship of trust and credibility with citizens, parties, state institutions and all stakeholders.
Laudable objectives
Very laudable objectives that need the support of all, seeing particularly that the EC is determined to make sure that elections are delivered and managed transparently and ethically in a manner that will place it in world-class standards.
Not that the EC has in some ways been operating in an illegal manner. Neither has there been any doubt about its independence. And so, is the five-year plan strengthening efforts already in place or charting a new course for the Commission?
I believe that it is about strengthening structures already in place and nothing more.
What I have observed the EC doing is abridging sentences from previous documents and presenting it as new. But it’s all good insofar as the Commission is committing itself to excellence, for which it is already known.
Relations with STL
At the event, the EC Chair also laid to rest the confusion that arose from the last election over the EC’s association with Superlock Technology Limited (STL).
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Previously, while the commission had denied any association with the company, recently the government through the Minister of Interior, Mr Prosper Bani, had intimated that there was indeed a relation between the Commission and STL.
Readers will recall that during the national election in 2012, there was huge outcry from the opposition NPP with regard to the role of STL in the affairs of the EC. It was alleged at the time that the company was changing figures in favour of the ruling NDC.
Now that the EC has boldly admitted its relationship with the company, its activities can now be followed closely and scrutinised.
Limited registration exercise
Another fine point raised at the event concerned the upcoming limited voter registration exercise scheduled from April 28 to May 8, 2016.
It was made succinctly clear that the exercise was for those who have just turned 18 and those who could not register in the last registration exercise.
The public is cautioned that registering again because one has misplaced his or her voter ID card amounts to multiple registration, which is a criminal offence.
I pray that we all take heed and not try to play smart because the consequences will not be palatable.
New logo
The unveiling of a new logo for the EC was for me the low point of the event. After weeks of speculation and denials by staff of the EC itself, the Commission finally let the cat out of the bag.
The explanation that the new logo was adopted to demonstrate the independence of the Commission does not hold water, unless it is widely the known case that the EC is not independent. Is that what the EC wants to infer that in the past it had not acted independently?
I know that it is private companies and indeed some parastatals with governmental influence that with free rein could, as it were rebrand, but not a wholly state institution funded solely with the taxpayers money.
It is thought that even if at all, such efforts at rebranding will admit proposals from several quarters and brought before a selection panel before a final choice is made.
The EC Chair must check her posture very well before the elections proper, because to say that ‘we saw it, we picked it and we are happy’ is to look us all in the face and tell us you don’t give a damn what anybody thinks, which is not good at this crucial time.
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