Matters about elections and especially the Electoral Commission (EC) continue to tease the organisation’s one-time Chairperson as he takes time off his cartoon series entertainment to make remarks about the subject.
It is not out of place for him to take some time off the series and talk about matters he thinks he has a fair knowledge about. But when he does, he should avoid making it look like he has knowledge about elections. Not so when his tenure does not come near what the current order is in terms of quality.
The regime of pink sheets not adding up and Finger of God anomalies have been replaced with digital-backed system of managing elections.
The logic that because the guarantor system is allowed for people seeking the Ghana Card, the EC too should consider it sounds absurd and untenable. Two layers of the guarantor system, by both the National Identification Authority (NIA) and the EC gives leeway for cheats and for that matter unqualified persons, as was the case during his tenure, to decide our political leaders for us.
We must guard against the infiltration of the country by time-tested foreigners who have voted in our elections over the years.
We should use whatever is available and feasible to ensure a clean break from the blemish-laden voting in local general elections, the cacophony of the likes of the former EC Chairperson notwithstanding.
The former EC Chairperson is finding it difficult to come to terms with the hard walled mechanisms now in place for elections, especially the new layer of allowing only Ghana Card as proof of eligibility.
It takes hard work and research to come up with the robust checks now in place for elections, which is what the management of the EC has done and continues to do.
Elections are critical in democracies because through them the political leadership of the country is birthed. No cracks should therefore be allowed for cheats to explore.
We have learnt sufficient lessons from other countries to allow perilous slips in our political system.
Many instances abound about how some criminally-minded persons have abused the guarantor clause to their advantage. For every law, there are instances of abuses. These, with time and innovations, are addressed, as being noticed in the EC efforts.
We recall with derision the days of opaque ballot boxes and voter identification cards with only a few or no security features. Now confined to the dustbin of history, we must move forward with technology-backed innovations, which is what the former Chairperson and those thinking alike are opposed to.