The Electoral Commission (EC) has indicated it is fully prepared to work with the December 7 date for this year’s elections, after Parliament rejected proposals for a bill to change the date to November 7.
“We prepared towards 7th of November but if now the decision has been made that we should maintain the 7th of December, we shall just abide by it,” the Director of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, told Citi News.
Parliament rejected the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2016, which sought to amend Article 112 (4) of the 1992 Constitution, to change the country’s date of election from December 7th to the first Monday of November in election years, as the Bill could not garner the 184 votes needed for its passage.
Out of the 275 members of parliament, 125 voted for the November 7 date, whiles 95 voted against it, with 45 being absent from the House.
“We are a law abiding institution. Whatever the law requires us to do is what we do,”Mr. Dzakpasu stated in response to the development whilst assuring that going back to December 7, will not affect its preparation.
“In any case, 7th December has always been our election date. That is what we have done from 1996 thereabouts to date. It is our experiences from the 7th of December date which informed our decision to change it to 7th November,” he noted.
Why may the bill have been rejected
The Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament recommended the passage of the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2016, but a ranking member of the committee suggested that the November 7 date tabled for the general elections was still shrouded in uncertainty.
The ranking member, Joseph Osei-Owusu, argued that the Electoral Commission (EC) was so far not financially resourced to conduct the polls on November 7.
He cited delays in the procurement of election materials and training of election officers as some of the many reasons why the polls on the new date might not be feasible.
According to Mr. Osei-Owusu, at the committee level, “All of us were not in agreement that everything will be okay so many expressed fears that the calendar itself that the EC presented, is so tight that indeed some of the dates for activities overlap, therefore should any slight error happen, there is the likelihood the elections cannot happen.”
Pandering to political expediency
However, the Deputy Attorney-General, Dominic Ayine, believes the Bill was rejected for political expediency and not necessarily because various stakeholders involved failed to convince.
“It is for political strategic convenience that the bill has been rejected. It is not because we have not done our work,” Mr. Ayine noted to Citi News.
Background
Currently, the date set aside in respect of the conduct of both presidential and parliamentary elections in the country is December 7, while the swearing-in of the elected President is January 7 of the following year.
Concerns have however been raised that the one-month period for the transition of one government to another, is insufficient for a smooth transition, especially in instances of a run-off as was the case in the years 2000 and 2008.
In the light of the apparent weakness in the electoral system and following the election petition in 2012, the Electoral Reform Committee was established on January 23, 2015 to propose reforms to the country’s electoral system.
The committee comprised representatives of the EC.
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