Lawyer H. Kwasi Prempeh says the failure of the Electoral Commission (EC) to tell Ghanaians how it detected over-voting and how many polling stations and constituencies were involved, raises questions about the intervention it intended to make in the form of reviewing of the results.
"It is disturbing that the headquarters of the Electoral Commission is getting involved in the results,” he said in a Facebook post.
There have often been issues with the appointment of the EC’s Commissioners, especially the Chairperson, by a President whose party or who himself takes part in the voting.
Some political parties have leveled serious allegations of bias and manipulation of the outcome of the results against the heads of the EC. However, their arguments are often defeated by the fact that the commissioners and heads at the headquarters of the Electoral Commission often have no way of influencing the outcome.
This is because, on Election Day, they do not play any significant roles at the polling station and constituencies, and they don’t interfere with the results from the constituencies.
According to lawyer Prempeh, if the head office of the EC is allowed to review results, determine over-voting and other irregularities, and decide on what to do, the process can be undermined, especially if Ghana ever gets corrupt or politically compromised persons at the top
This, he said, undermine our democratic process.
He advised the EC to stick to the decentralised nature of the election process so that those at the top would have very little or no influence on the outcome of Ghana elections.
He stated that if the party agents at the national collation centre have issues with a particular constituency result, they must prove why.
“By the time the results at the constituency collation centres get to the national collation centres, the party agents there should have the certified figures from their constituencies.
“They ought to also have specific concerns, if any, as the reason they should not sign certain results", he added.
Source: The Finder
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This is the time for real change, the NPP has the majority in parliament so they have to see to it that all the needed changes to the constitution are made.
The EC cannot be changed.,granted. But I think at every point in time the EC should have a representative from each political party who will have access to all operations of the commission to ensure free and fair election as well as checks and balance on each other's activities.
This was noted by Hon Ken Agyapong when he received details of NDC meetings to rig the elections. He said it on Oman FM program called Boiling Point.
The only way to get an independent EC is to amend the constitution on the selection of the EC chairperson immediately. I suggest the EC chairperson must be selected by Parliament, with minimum of 50% vote from ruling government and 50% from opposition MPs. In this way, any EC chairperson selected will be impartial and conscious of he/she got there.
That was an obvious attempt by someone outside the EC to use the commission to interfere with the expressed will of the people. Thank God whoever thought that diabolic action rescinded his/her decision since that would have been a recipe for chaos in the country.