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If anybody still doubts that Ghana has moved on from that point where one family – the Agyeman - Rawlings family – are able to act with impunity, and get away with it, such a person must take a cue from the letter written and signed by the EC chairperson Madam Challotte Osei, clearing further doubts that indeed, Zanetor Rawlings, the daughter of former President Rawlings and NDC founder, is not a registered voter in Ghana. 

This revelation from the Electoral Commission, at a time the commissioner is being accused by the opposition NPP of being a puppet of the ruling NDC and the powers that be, has cleared doubts about her readiness to act independently in the 2016 general elections without bowing to pressure from the ruling government which appointed her or the opposition who revile her. 

What the Madam commissioner has just exposed in her letter, appears to be a grand conspiracy by the NDC founder and his family as well as the President John Mahama and the leadership of the ruling NDC, to perpetuate an illegality on the people of Ghana by allowing Zanetor Rawlings to run for parliamentary primaries in Ghana on the ticket of the ruling NDC, the party her father founded - despite not being qualified. 

Political observers believe that the whole ‘illegal effort’, which was openly supported and financed by the President John Mahama himself, was simply to please the Agyeman – Rawlings Family – who now appear to be living in the past - falsely thinking that the EC will cover up their ‘illegal efforts’ in trepidation. However, to their utmost dismay, the EC has shown ‘balls’. Ghana has moved on from the fear of the Agyeman –Rawlings family.

Meanwhile, it has been reported in local social media circles that the whole ‘illegal effort’ by the NDC founder and the President to put Dr. Zanetor Rawlings in parliament – even without her name in the voters as confirmed by EC – is to enable the President appoint her as a minister of state, all in a grand effort to try to keep the ‘dead’ Agyeman – Rawlings name still relevant in Ghana.

On voting day in the Klottey Korle NDC primaries last year, Dr. Zanetor Agyeman – Rawlings, appeared surprised when she could not cast a vote for herself and the President. She was reported in the media to have moved from one polling station to the other ostensibly looking for her name. And this now appears to be despite the fact that Zanetor and the Agyeman - Rawlings family as well as the President John Mahama and the NDC top hierarchy were in full knowledge of the absence of her name on the voters register – even when she was contesting. Although she did not qualify to vote, she ran to be voted for. However, the constitution of Ghana says that one can only qualify to run to be voted for, if one is already qualified to vote.

Nii Armah Ashietey, sitting MP for Klottey Korle and Nii John Coleman, former parliamentary aspirant have been in court over the past months praying the court to declare Dr. Zanetor’s election as NDC parliamentary candidate for Klottey Korle null and void based on the argument that as at the time she run for the parliamentary primaries, Zanetor Rawlings was unqualified to do so. Lawyers for the two plaintiffs are now relieved and much hopeful of success after receiving a letter from the chairperson of the electoral commission confirming and supporting their argument.

The EC letter was written on the 26th February 2016 and states emphatically, ‘’our records confirm that Dr. Zanetor Agyeman – Rawlings is not on the commission’s register as a registered voter’’. 

The EC also washed its hands off the on-going court case, saying ‘Please take note, and take appropriate steps to strike out the suit against the commission because it appears clearly from the processes served the commission, that the only reason why the commission has been made party to the suit is because the plaintiffs desires information on the status of Dr. Zanetor Agyeman – Rawlings as a registered voter which by virtue of the subpoena duces Tecum we would have been bound to disclose to the court anyway’.

Clearly, the EC by this bold exposure of corruption and lack of probity by the Rawlings’ despite ‘pressure from above’, is not ready to do any party’s bidding. Not the bidding of the President. Not the bidding of Agyeman – Rawlings. Not the bidding of NDC and NPP but Ghanaians. Clearly also, the EC is trying very hard to emerge from its battered image from the 2012 ‘pink sheet’ elections malpractices and the massive loss of public confidence as a direct result of the election petition of 2013.

Will the courts hesitate to nail the coffin of the Agyeman – Rawlings family now that the EC has given it the impetus to do so without fear or favour? Many political watchers believe that this is a golden opportunity for the judiciary just like it was for the EC – an opportunity they cannot afford not to utilise for two things: To try to neutralise the effects of recent implication and subsequent dismissal of several judges for corruption by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The court will also want to do justice to the unresolved murders of three high court judges in Ghana under the Rawlings regime by exposing the apparent double standards of the Agyeman – Rawlings family in Ghana.

It will be recalled that Former President Jerry John Rawlings, who ruled Ghana for nearly twenty (20) years and handed over power to President Kufuor in 2000, has created himself an apostle of anti- corruption, probity and accountability, integrity, social justice etc.

 Meanwhile, critics have called all that gimmicks, pointing to the seizure and transfer/divestiture of private businesses and properties during the Rawlings regime, and the illegal transfer of those private businesses and properties into ownership of the Agyeman – Rawlings family.  Nsawam canary is just one example often cited. Another example is the case of the 31DWM office building at ridge, belonging to a private citizen who is currently in court seeking help to retrieve the landed property from the Rawlings family who seized it in the 80’s for their private use.

Questions are now being asked as to whether the Agyeman – Rawlings family has come to the end of the road in terms of their relevance and their ability to charm people into believing and following them in Ghana.

People are now wondering if former President Rawlings can still claim or proclaim to be a believer in probity, integrity or anti – corruption now that the EC has made it very emphatic that his own daughter Zanetor Rawlings is not a registered voter in Ghana but her family, forcing the President and the NDC general secretary into this grand conspiracy, decided to act with impunity, and without regards to the principles of transparency, probity and accountability – or even the constitution of Ghana which was signed into effect in 1992 by former President Rawlings himself.

Some conclude that the Agyeman – Rawlings family appear from history, to have been living on an ‘animal farm’ in Ghana where different rules applied to different animals and the constitution is meant to be obeyed only by the mentally inferior sheep/people following the laws to the letter whiles the mentally superior pigs/Agyeman – Rawlings’ can break at free will and amend the constitution for their own selfish gains. They have always been the law in Ghana in the past. But the Agyeman – Rawlings family may now have no option in the present-future than to wake up from the illusion that Ghana and her state institutions are still under their grotesque grip of impunity. 

The electoral commission of Ghana has shown the court the way to justice and to the rule of law. The court must now reasonably understand that Ghanaians are now watching them to uphold the truth and dismiss the apparent perpetual impunity from the body politic of Ghana. The final decision of the court on this matter will be a big pointer to the atmosphere to be expected during the 2016 general elections in Ghana.

 But will the ultimate decision from the courts mark the ultimate shame of the Agyeman – Rawlings family or will there be any more dignity left over?