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The Integrity of Ghana`s Electoral Commission "NPP trusts…NDC doesn`t" |
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All the current Commissioners of the Electoral Commission, including the Chairman, Dr. Afari Gyan, were appointed by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to conduct the elections that ushered Ghana into the 4th Republic. |
The PNDC was the forerunner of the NDC. The first election to be conducted by the Commission in 1992, though peaceful, was hotly disputed by all the non-PNDC parties leading to the boycott of Parliament by the NPP and its allies.
The NPP went on to publish a “Stolen Verdict” in which the Electoral Commission and the (P)NDC stood accused.
Later, the voters register was discovered to contain about 2 million names that could not be accounted for. That discovery led to the first major clean up of the register. The issue has been regurgitated, this time by the NDC with its claim of a “bloated” voters register in parts of the Ashanti Region. The issue is gradually assuming a life of its own and could greatly degrade Election 2008.
But in fairness to the EC, it has since it was established gained a lot of respect all over the world with its staff sought after to help create new electoral systems elsewhere. The latest brouhaha therefore must come as a great irritant to the Commission which is readying itself to commence the processes that would culminate in December’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
The issue of the so called bloated register is refusing to go away and all eyes are on the EC to set up an investigating committee to find out what is really wrong and how to arrest it. A question of trust, the most important ingredient in any election, has therefore been thrown up.
It is this issue of trust that would have to be resolved beyond doubt before the ballots are cast in December. On the question of trust alone, the NDC could actualize its threats of Kenya-style post election mayhem. It is one to be taken seriously.
The National Organizer of the NPP, Mr. Lord Commey has he is not aware of any committee that has been set up by the Electoral Commission (EC) to investigate the NDC’s allegation of a “bloated” voters register, but his party has confidence in the EC and has taken the Commission’s word to set up a committee to investigate the claims. Speaking to the media over the weekend, he said “We want the EC to get to the bottom of the matter because it casts a slur on the integrity of our electoral process, therefore something should be done.”
He said the NPP is ready and will continue to support any move that will contribute towards free and fair elections in the country.
Mr. Lord Commey expressed doubt about the CD-ROM that the NDC claims is in the party’s possession and said the NDC’s behavior poses “so many questions that are unanswered”.
The National Organizer said his party is “mad” at how the NDC chose to handle the issue, saying they could have handled it in a more responsible manner.
“You obtained the information from the EC and you found out that there is something wrong with it; the best thing is to have gone back to the EC to crosscheck the information. It is bad for the NDC to create the impression that one political party is conniving with the EC. That is what we are mad at. The NDC should come out with the evidence, or come out and apologize.”
Meanwhile, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has stated emphatically that, until the Electoral Commission (EC) sets up a committee to investigate what the party says is a bloated voters’ register, the party would not give the CD-ROM containing its “analysis” to the EC.
His intransigence stems from what he termed as a “consistent response” from some EC officials claiming that the “NDC had never written to them and they have never given any CD-ROM to the NDC”. This was however corrected at an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting last week.
The CD-ROM has been a subject of controversy as the EC has contested the figures the NDC claimed it obtained from the CD which it sourced from the EC. Dr. Afari Gyan the Chairman of the EC challenged the NDC to submit the CD for verification.
Mr. Afriyie Ankrah said for the EC to concede to having given a CD-ROM to the NDC but challenging its content gives room for suspicion and reason why the EC should not be trusted on this issue.
“I will not trust the Electoral Commission and hand over this CD-ROM to them, it won’t happen”, he a radio programme in Accra last weekend.
He said the EC must come clean and establish a committee made up of representatives of all political parties, personnel from EC’s own IT department and independent IT people “so that we will unravel this issue”.
The NDC Deputy General Secretary expressed the fear that the EC might also tamper with the CD-ROM when given to them and paint a negative picture about the NDC to the public.
“We don’t want to take chances and give it to them…why should we go and hand over the CD-ROM to them and go and sleep in our homes, if tomorrow they come and tell us that they found it, how can we verify?”
Media source at the Electoral Commission disclosed that a committee was set up last Friday. The source could not give further details about composition of the committee. When the media contacted the Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Afari Gyan on how far the Commission had gone with setting up of the committee, he said matter-of-factly: “My brother, I don’t want to discuss that!”
Unimpressed, he added “Is it imperative that I have to report to somebody daily about what I am doing?1 |
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