The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has written to the Council of State to reconsider its advice to the President concerning two of the three recently sworn-in members of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC).
The NDC adduced evidence that Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani have deep roots within the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and cannot guarantee the neutrality and impartiality of Ghana’s Electoral Management Body.
“For any election to be accepted as credible, free, fair and transparent, every process must be accepted by key stakeholders, not least political parties such as ours, as credible and transparent,” the letter written by NDC’s National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Monday, April 17 said.
“To achieve this, principal actors, including members of the electoral management body, must not only be but must be perceived to be neutral and impartial to be able to carry all parties along.”
But Mr Asiedu Nketia minced no words that “it is demonstrably clear that the positions and roles of these [two] appointees within the NPP compromise their capacity to act with any form of neutrality”.
For Dr Appiahene, a lecturer at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), the NDC said he has been a patron of the NPP student wing sine 2017 at the same univeristy and was even a member of the 2020 National Research and Data Analysis Team of the NPP.
“It is our considered view that the appointment of a personality with such overwhelmingly partisan credentials into the Electoral Commission will hamper public confidence in the constitutionally independent body and undermine the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections in Ghana.”
For Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, the NDC said aside being an activist of the ruling party herself, her immediate family are deeply rooted in the party.
“It goes without saying that Hajia Salima evidently and perceptibly bears partisan colouration which clearly vitiates any hopes of neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the Elctioral Commisison.”
The NDC is, therefore, asking the Council to withdraw its advice in order not to be seen as complicit in the appointment “of these patently partisan individuals to the Electoral Commission and to safeguard the integrity of the Council as far as its role in the structure of our governance architecture is concerned”.
When he swore in the three new members – the third being Reverend Akua Ofori Boateng – on Monday, March 20 at the Jubilee House, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo warned that their decisions were going to be scrutinised like never before.
“That, however, should not scare you and, indeed, let no one try to cow you into submission,” the President urged.
“On the contrary, let this expectation of the Ghanaian people spur you onto great heights and above all the works of the will of the Ghanaian people is upheld.”
Mr Asiedu Nketia’s letter has been copied to the European Union Observer Team, the African Union Observer Team, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Electoral Commission, the US Ambassador to Ghana, the British High Commissioner, the Ambassador of the Netherlands and the German Ambassador, among others.
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