The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has bemoaned the attacks on the neutrality and credibility of the Jean-Mensa-led commission from the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama.
The former president, in an interview at the London School of Economics and Political Science, criticised the Commission for lacking neutrality.
Mr. Mahama accused the EC of recruiting people affiliated with the ruling party to serve as returning officers in the upcoming general elections.
But the Commission has strongly rejected the attacks by the NDC 2024 presidential candidate.
In a statement dated Thursday, April 25, the Commission stated, among other things, that all the current commissioners were appointed based on the same constitutional provisions he, Mr. Mahama, “used to appoint persons as president, whose neutrality was also questioned.”
Furthermore, the EC indicated that the NDC presidential candidate has used every opportunity presented to him, as far as the activities of the current EC are concerned, to denigrate the election management body.
The Commission said, “Former President Mahama, during his presidency. exercised his authority under this same provision of the Constitution to make an appointment to the Commission. There were Ghanaians who questioned the neutrality of the person he appointed.”
“There were also Ghanaians who equally accused President Mahama at the time of appointing persons with NDC sympathies to the Commission,” the statement added.
According to the EC, what was different then was that other Ghanaian political leaders “did not use every opportunity they got to demonise and denigrate the Electoral Commission” as a result of their reservations about President Mahama’s appointment to the Commission.
“He [Mr. Mahama], on the other hand, has never missed an opportunity to denigrate this Commission,” it said.
Background
Mr. Mahama, in an interview at the London School of Economics, questioned the neutrality of the returning officers the EC is recruiting ahead of the December 7 polls.
The NDC leader stated that the information available to his party suggests that NPP sympathisers are being recruited.
“Recently there was an announcement of recruitment of returning officers, and the information we have is that ministers and DCES [District Chief Executives] 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 noted.
Also, former president Mahama, underscored that, “You as much as possible want to appoint people who are credible, who are respected, who everybody knows would be neutral. But this is a government that has a record of appointing NPP people on to the Electoral Commission.”
