Attempts To Bastardize EC Should Be Discouraged – Gov’t

Jean Mensa and John Mahama

GOVERNMENT HAS urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to discourage attempts by any group or political party to bastardize the Electoral Commission (EC).

Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, made the call on Monday, May 20, in Accra.

His call was in response to recent claims made by former President John Mahama that the 2016 Presidential election was rigged in favor of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Mr. Mahama earlier on Monday, May 20, 2019, in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, observed that the posturing of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), Jean Mensa, does not indicate that she would be neutral in the 2020 polls.

The Presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress says Mrs Mensa has acted in ways that suggest that representatives of the political parties are a disturbance to the elections management body, a situation he said was unfortunate.

He says “they need to prove us wrong. We have our doubts that they can be neutral and fair … The current posture and the way they are conducting things makes us doubt that they will be neutral and fair in 2020.”

According to him, “The EC is not a secret society. It is not somebody’s private closet that needs to be shut, and, [we], do not know what is going on there… They should open all the process.”

But the Information Minister says attempts to bastardize the EC should not be encouraged.

He says the EC has over the years come under attack from opposition parties but has lived up to the task.

According to him, anyone who feel aggrieved by the actions or inactions of the EC must go through court system and not to bastardize the Commission.

BY Melvin Tarlue