A few months from now, Ghana would be going to the polls to either retain President John Dramani Mahama in power, or usher in Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the new president of the Republic.
Ghanaians would also be electing Members of Parliament (MPs) to occupy the law-making chamber. Whichever way, the institution that has the responsibility to ensure that this arrangement becomes a reality, to ensure peace, undoubtedly, is the Charlotte Osei-led Electoral Commission (EC).
Since the inception of the 4th Republic in 1992, Ghanaians have witnessed all kinds of disputes at the registration centers, during re-registration of voters and limited registration among others, as a result of the inexperience of some officials of the EC.
During the 2012 election petition hearing at the Supreme Court, Ghanaians appreciated the fact that many of the inconsequential mistakes that sent the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to court came from the EC’s own officials who manned the various polling stations.
The Chronicle, therefore, expects that after all these experiences in the past, the EC would learn its lessons and recruit qualified people to serve as polling agents for the smooth running of the electoral process, but the opposite is the case.
The exhibition of the voters register for registered voters to check their names at the various registration centers across the country has been fraught with distressing reports from some of the centers.
Last Thursday, there were reports that the EC has dismissed two of its officials at the Walewale District office – Jobey Ambrose and Mumuni Latiffa, who sent the voter’s register to Dr. Bawumia’s house to enable him verify his name.
The EC, according to the reports, has confirmed dismissing the two officials, saying the decision was appropriate, because they breached the country’s electoral laws.
According to the Deputy Director of Communication at the Commission, Yusif Alhassan, the action by the officials, who failed to adhere to a directive that voters can only be verified at exhibition centres, is dismissible.
Even a Junior High School (JHS) student could tell that no polling official is expected to leave the station and carry his or her register and verification machine to anybody’s house to verify him or her. This goes to show the caliber of persons the EC has been contracting to do its work.
No wonder some of them cannot even express themselves well when they are interviewed on air, which should be enough indictment on the part of the EC.
Unless, officials of the EC are telling us that they are not aware of what is happening in the country, or they are behaving like the proverbial ostrich, they ought to be fully aware of the emotional political situation that currently exists in the country.
It is not for nothing that the Nigeria EC, during the country’s last election, used university professors as polling agents to ensure that the process went on smoothly, and we are all witnesses to what happened at that poll.
The Chronicle is, therefore, advising the EC to ensure that qualified personnel have been recruited to handle all the processes leading to the December 7 general elections. What the EC officials in Walewale did is unacceptable, and we are happy that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia did not accept their bait, but decided to go to the polling station himself to check out his name on the register.
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