The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has dismissed allegations leveled against the commission by former President John Dramani Mahama that the commission has recruited members of the New Patriotic Party as Returning Officers.
In a press statement the EC debunked allegations made by the former president during an interview stating that the commission, instead of recruiting eligible people are rather recruiting members of the NPP.
The former president and the 2024 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had stated, "you as much as possible want to appoint people who are credible, who are respected, who everybody knows will be neutral. But this is a government that has a record of appointing NPP people on to the Electoral commission."
"We had an Electoral Commission that has been a model for the whole of Africa because of the innovations that we have introduced at every stage of the way . . . and because of that it has created the best electoral processes that Africa has."
He added, "recently there was an announcement of recruitment of returning officers, and the information we have is that ministers and DCEs and others were asked to write the names of party apparatchiki and present them so that they would be appointed as the Returning Officers. Are these people going to be neutral?’’, he quizzed?
In a rebuttal to the allegations, the EC stated that the Commission operates based on the dictates of the constitution, thus, they do not operate outside of the 1992 constitution.
"Article 43(2) of the constitution provides that, "the members of the commission shall be appointed by the President under article 70 of this constitution’’. Former President Mahama during his presidency, exercised his authority under this same provision of the constitution to make appointment to the commission. There were Ghanaians who questioned the neutrality of the person appointed. There were also Ghanaians equally accused President Mahama at the time of appointing persons with NDC sympathisers to the commission. What was different then is that other Ghanaian political leaders did not use every opportunity it got to demonise and denigrate the electoral commission as result of their reservations about President Mahama’s appointment to the Commission. He, on the other hand, has never missed an opportunity to denigrate this commission."
The commission added that, the former President seems to have forgotten that the history of Ghana’s electoral process is one that shows improvements in every election cycle.
"Indeed, for most voters who have had voting experiences under the 4th republic, the 2020 elections provided the best voting experience, with shorter queues, and even shorter time spent going through the voting process. Additionally, the commission reduced the cost of election from Thirteen US dollars ($13) to seven US dollars ($7) and seventy cents ($7.70) per person and saved a whooping ninety million US dollars $90 million."
The commission, thus, claims that the allegations leveled against them is false and should be regarded.
"The process of recruiting returning officers and their deputies was conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner. Following the publication of the vacancy announcements in the Daily Graphic on the 5th of February 2024, the commission received a total of 20, 561 applications. An in-house committee was established to shortlist suitable applicants to be interviewed. For the information of the general public, all successful applicants at the interview have no less than 8 years of working experience with the commission as Temporary electoral officials."
The commission, therefore, urged Ghanaians to ignore the allegations and assured Ghanaians of a free, fair and transparent December 2024 elections.
