Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa has been accused of seeing herself as an appointee of President Akufo-Addo rather than the Head of a constitutionally instituted independent body.
According to a Private legal Practitioner who doubles as a member of the communication team of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Lawyer Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, the claim by the Electoral Commission Chair that there was no violence in the just ended by-election at Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency is very regrettable as far as multi-party democracy is concerned in this country.
In a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s 'Alhaji and Alhaji' talk show, the NDC Communicator posited that “the observation made by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) that some known uniformed National Security operatives attacked a police officer on duty for alerting them to move away from the polling officials in comparison with DCOP Alex Mensah, Director-General in charge of operations saying he has no idea who the masked men in the uniform were means that the masked men who were deployed are not part of the lawfully established security apparatus of this Republic”.
“It is important that this observation by CODEO collaborate exactly what the NDC has stated relating to the level of violence. So the claim by the EC Chairperson who today see herself as an appointee of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo rather than the Head of a constitutionally created independent body posits that there was no violence in the election is regrettable,” he stressed.
He therefore mentioned that the “laws of this country prevents anybody from raising any police force or military force or armed force without an act of Parliament. So quite clearly the involvement of these terror groups associated with the NPP for the sole purpose of intimidating, assaulting and brutalising persons going about their lawful constitutional duty of casting their votes can only be subversion on the 1992 Constitution”.
Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]
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It is very interesting that Jean Mensah is behaving exactly like Charlotte Osei. With the benefit of hind sight, she needs to mature and not to be seen as always defending her appointing authority. It was vividly clear that she had already taken a stance and was not ready to tolerate or compromise with anyone who dared to challenge her point of view. When she said that CODEO's report was untrue, it meant that she was there herself at every polling station or she only believes what her returning officers reported and everybody else was a liar!
I agree totally with your submission even though I am not an NDC supporter. I was completely shocked to hear her say the recent bye-election was peaceful, free and fair even in the midst of brutalities meted out to some citizens connected with the elections. Her statement seems to be taken verbatim from that of Bryan Acheampong. People were shot at and wounded because of the elections and she has the temerity to tell Ghanaians all was peaceful? How does she understand peace? COIDEC(O) reported and raised serious infractions and you cannot just dismiss them with a whiff! They have been observing and reporting on elections way before she even dreams of becoming an EC boss. It is laughable to think she can just dismiss their concerns because she is the EC boss! She has to sit up before she sets this country ablaze with mindless and thoughtlessly insensitive pronouncements! Does she think those whose blood flowed on that day were goats?