Re-consider Your Advice to the President In the Appointment of 'Patently Partisan Individuals' to EC - NDC Petitions Council of State
The largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned the Council of State over President Akufo-Addo’s recent appointments of Dr. Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani to the Electoral Commission (EC)’s board.
According to a statement by the Chairman of the party Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, in the specific case of Dr. Peter Appiahene, Political Parties, Civil Society Organizations, Faith-Based Organizations, political watchers and other concerned neutrals have criticised what they consider to be the appointment of a publicly-known hardliner and irredeemably partisan New Patriotic Party activist to fill one of the vacancies that has become available at the Electoral Commission following the recent retirement of three members of the Commission.
The National Democratic Congress is as equally alarmed and concerned by these recent appointments as the vast majority of the Ghanaian people who stand united in one chorus over its potential to compromise the neutrality and impartiality of the Electoral Commission, and invariably, taint the credibility of the electoral management body.
"It is our considered view that the appointment of a personality with such overwhelmingly partisan credentials into the Electoral Commission will hamper public confidence in the constitutionally independent body and undermine the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in Ghana," he said.
On the appointment of Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, the party's background search reveals that she has well-known New Patriotic Party leanings. Aside the fact that Hajia Salima is herself an activist of the ruling New Patriotic Party, she is married to one Sheikh T.B Damba, a former Second National Vice Chairman of the NPP, and Ghana's immediate-past ambassador to Saudi Arabia, from 2017 to 2021.
"Indeed, her immediate family is well-rooted in the NPP tradition - her mother, one Hajia Samata Gifty Bukari was the first female Vice Chairperson of the New Patriotic Party in the Northern Region. Her sister, one Hajia Abibata Shani Mahama Zakariah, currently serves in President Akufo-Addo's government as the Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Loans Center (MASLOC), and is a former contestant in the New Patriotic Party 2020 Parliamentary primaries in the Yendi Constituency.
"It certainly goes without saying, that Hajia Salima evidently and perceptibly bears partisan coloration which clearly vitiates any hope of neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the Electoral Commission," portions of the statement said.
It says it agree entirely with CODEO and the other Civil Society Organizations who have already commented publicly on this matter that to engender trust and confidence in the Electoral Commission, its composition and membership matter a great deal. Unfortunately, it is demonstrably clear that the positions and roles of these appointees within the NPP compromise their capacity to act with any form of neutrality.
"We are aware that once Dr. Appiahene and Hajia Salima have been sworn-in as members of the Commission, the Council of State has become functus officio in the process of their appointments. We are nevertheless of the view that against the background of the evidence that we have presented, it is possible for the Council to re-consider its advice to the President in order to erase any perception that the Council has been complicit in the appointment of these patently partisan individuals to the Electoral Commission and to safeguard the integrity of the Council as far as its role in the structure of our governance architecture is concerned," it added.
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