By Augustus Acquaye
The Electoral Commission has slammed NDC flagbearer John Mahama for claiming persons appointed to the Commission are NPP members and that the Commission is hiring NPP faithful to serve as returning and deputy returning officers for the December elections.
John Mahama in a recent interview at the London School of Economics and Political Science, accused the government of appointing its NPP sympathisers to the EC. He also raised concerns about the EC’s impartiality in the upcoming elections, claiming that the election management body had requested MPs and DCEs to disclose the names of NPP members during the recruitment of Returning Officers and their deputies. But the Electoral Commission, in a statement, vehemently refuted the allegations, saying the process of recruiting the officers was not only made public but conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner.
The statement signed by the Deputy Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Samuel Tettey, pointed out that all the current commissioners were appointed based on the same constitutional provisions Mr Mahama as President, used to appoint persons whose neutrality were also questioned.
It cited Article 43(2) of the Constitution, which provides that, “The members of the Commission shall be appointed by the President under Article 70. The statement said Former President Mahama, during his presidency, exercised his authority under this same provision of the Constitution to make an appointment to the Commission.”
The Commission said what was different then was that other Ghanaian political leaders did not use every opportunity to demonise and denigrate the Electoral Commission as a result of their reservations about President Mahama’s appointment to the Commission. He, on the other hand, has never missed an opportunity to denigrate the Electoral Commission. Touching on the efficiency of elections conducted by the Commission, the statement said that when former President Mahama refers to innovations introduced to give Ghana one of the best electoral processes in Africa, he seems to forget that the history of Ghana’s electoral processes is one that shows improvements in every election cycle.
The Electoral Commission said that for most voters who have had voting experiences under the 4th Republic, the 2020 elections provided the best voting experience, with shorter queues and an even shorter time spent going through the voting process. Additionally.
The Commission reduced the cost of election from Thirteen dollars to Seven dollars and 70cents per person and saved the nation a whopping 90 million dollars. It added that, for the first time in the history of the country, the Election was fully funded by the Government of Ghana.
On the recruitment of Returning Officers and their Deputies, the EC said a publication of the vacancy was made in the Daily Graphic on the 5th of February this year, adding that it received more than 20,561 applications. The statement said an in-house Committee was established to shortlist suitable applicants to be interviewed. All successful applicants at the interview had no less than 8 years of work experience with the Commission as Temporal Election Officials.
