EC and political parties don’t play to the rules

A Former Chief Director at the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana, Mr. Damoah Agyemang has accused the Directors of the Electoral Commission and political parties of deliberately not playing to the rules of the Electoral Laws of Ghana.

There have a number of suggestions about the need for electoral reforms in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict last month, August 29, 2013.

Already, the Electoral Commission is calling for proposals from the political parties and the general public in relation to the electoral reforms. Some of the political parties and other key personalities have welcomed the call in order to forestall the reoccurrence of the irregularities that nearly marred the 2012 general elections of which the nation had to go through a grueling eight months of court hearing.

Speaking on Adom FM's morning show, Dwaso Nsem, Mr. Damoah Agyemang noted with grave concern the wanton disregard of the quality of caliber of personnel engaged by the Electoral Commission in the conduct of the 2012 General Elections.

He expressed worry that most of the people engaged by the Electoral commission were not trainable, hence a reflection of the bad job executed by these electoral officers.

Mr. Damoah Agyemang explained that, hitherto, teachers were used in the conduct of the electoral process and wondered why this time round that status quo was side stepped.

He further stated that there must be a complete overhaul in the personnel engaged in the conduct of the elections and the EC must be seen to be living to the billing, by beefing up the standards of its permanent personnel as it has the potential of affecting the credibility of the electoral process.

In a related development, Mr. Agyemang also called for a ceiling of the number of the constituencies the country should have as a representation of the people in Parliament.

He noted that it is about time the country capped the number of constituencies as any respective government could abuse the process by creating more districts and by effect of gerrymandering the Electoral Commission could be compelled to also comply with the provision of the constitution by also reviewing the number of constituencies.

Source: myjoyonline