In Ghana, it appears every political party in power agrees with the Electoral Commission (EC) on most its decisions whilst the opposition party disagrees in most of the times.
A former Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, has explained why that has been the case since 1992 when Ghana started its Fourth Republic.
According to the former Member of Parliament, “the government of the day has a certain role to play together with the Electoral Commission in managing elections. The opposition has not much role but to be vigilant to voice out the shortfalls in the processes.”
He explained that, “for instance, it is the Attorney-General that presents the C.I. which stipulates the entire electoral processes to the government so that extent, the A-G’s office has some influence in pushing that process through.
“Secondly, when it comes to security arrangement, since the President is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, all the security agencies are under him and he calls the shot so if you’re not vigilant, you’ll realise the rumours of police recruitment without advertisement to train party apparatchiks to deploy on the election day will come to effect and if you are opposition and you don’t wise up, you’ll be swerved,” he disclosed.
The former Eastern Regional Minister has been telling Yaa Titi Okrah on Onua TV’s morning show, ‘Maakye’ Monday, June 24, 2024, that all stakeholders “expect the EC to be very open and transparent but if a deputy commissioner of the EC could describe a major opposition party like the NDC as an existential threat to our democracy, then you need to be very cautious. Because you can’t make such a comment as a referee. So these are some of the things that heightens our suspicion to check the EC on its activities.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo charged the religious bodies and Civil Society Organisations to get involved in the activities leading to the elections rather than waiting for the eleventh hour.
“Putting the EC to check in its preparations in the run-up to the elections for a free and fair exercise is where I expect our religious leaders and Civil Society Organisation, traditional authorities and all, to show interest rather than waiting for a month where we will be called to go and sign a Memorandum of Understanding to accept the results. If we don’t do this thing, that signature we’ll go and sign will be in vain,” he added.
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