Describing or even defending the recent vexatious Electoral Commission (EC) appointments as a means to effecting a political tilting of the elections management body points at the mindset of the President.
The recent appointments have ignited a national conversation about the integrity of the EC, and for good reasons.
The implication is that the President has appointed politically exposed persons with allegiance to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as Deputy Chairpersons, especially Emelia Affi Agbenyo, a dyed-in-the-wool NDC activist.
We were witnesses to the past elections and how some of them nearly pushed the country to the precipice but for providence.
If the President thinks the EC as currently constituted favours one political party, and for that matter the New Patriotic Party (NPP), hence his decision, then the future of democracy is shaky in this country, especially under the NDC.
As noted in a previous commentary, President John Mahama took exception to the appointment of Dr. Bossman Eric Asare as Deputy Chairperson of the EC when there was not an iota of evidence of the gentleman holding any NPP office or even associated with the party.
In the case of Emelia Affi Agbenyo, pictorial evidence and others exist about her association with the ruling NDC. This, the President has ignored, even as he was reminded about the concerns he raised when his predecessor made some appointments into the EC previously.
It is auspicious that even persons aligned to the NDC have expressed concern about the political incorrectness of the appointment of the lady.
Respectable civil society organisations have jumped into the fray, their arguments cogent and worthy of being adhered to by the President if only he would shed off his crocodile skin, listen and act upon the good counsels.
As a critical segment of democracy, in fact, the midwife of Presidents, and for that matter governments, the EC should be spared the acrimony and mistrust associated with the avoidable recent appointments.
If these have been made to take care of the interests of the NDC, then we are afraid the President’s call on them to be impartial in the performance of their duties was hypocritical.
Indeed, a suggestion that there were behind-the-scene engagements to remember the NDC cannot be dismissed. The good thing though is that in today’s Ghana, and in the face of new trends in elections management, underhand manoeuvres to favour one party against the other have been rendered obsolete.
Elections are won at the polling stations. Those who think they can use this irresponsible tilting of the composition of the EC to advance their electoral cause must rethink their thoughts. It simply won’t work.
Even before the verdict of Ghanaians is officially announced by the EC, the winner would have long been known.
Not listening to the good counsel of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and others would result in the unfortunate changes of the management of the EC after every change of government. This is certainly not what we want in this country.
Unfortunately though, the unwanted precedents as occasioned by the obnoxious reset agenda is what we are about to witness in future. The judiciary, the EC and others are already suffering the reset agenda, the outcome too palpable to be ignored.