The Electoral Commission role to be in position to conduct national election to protect the sanctity and credibility of our democracy is under threat as a result of financial support from the central government. The problem of shortage of ballots at some polling station in some centres came as a result of lack resources, funds and other internal challenges.
Though the EC has came out with a presser before the District Level Elections, saying the commission is ready; and it’s believe has nothing to do with any technical hitch, rather funds has not been released on time for the national exercise.
The Editor of Daily Dispatch and A Poll Star Ben Ephson said this on Ahot 92.3 FM on Adekyee Mu Nsem morning show hosted by Nana Dogbey in Accra.
The Poll Star is of the view that, there is a need for the Electoral Commission to use parliament as an over sight body to work out all the challenges confronting the institutions else going forward its can lead to serious electoral disturbances.
He reiterated that he believes and convince that, the district assembly election should be conducted on the party line, to create a clear direction for the electing assembly members and the unit committee members.
In another development, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has issued a stern warning to the electoral management body, the Electoral Commission (EC), to abort any agenda to repeat the technical challenges encountered during the District Level Elections (DLEs).
The party cautioned the EC to desist from repeating the ‘messes in the 2024 polls to prevent any untoward incidents. The local elections, which took place on the December 19, were characterized by the late arrival of voting materials and alleged wrong ballot papers, among other issues, forcing the EC to reschedule the elections, citing technical challenges.
However the EC has rescheduled the elections in parts of the Ashanti and Eastern regions to Thursday, December 21, 2023.
“We are very interested, and we have been very much interested in the activities of this election because it has a bearing on the next elections that will be organized. So, we followed keenly as far as the district assembly elections are concerned.”
“The situation that we find ourselves in as a nation is largely because we have an electoral commissioner who does not believe in consensus building and does not want to learn. We would have avoided this situation if she had engaged stakeholders and had been willing to do what was right.”
The National Democratic Congress also stated that the EC must take responsibility for the turn of events in the elections.
Mustapha Gbande, Deputy Secretary of the NDC said “Election management is not cast in stone. It is about the experience, it is about consultation, it is about dealing with people who know the work better than you to help you build a solid, transparent, dependable, credible system that will give a free and fair election to the people of Ghana. These mistakes are avoidable.”
“Someone must take full responsibility beyond apologising. She has messed up an election system that we all saw clearly and cautioned her and she didn’t listen. When we were speaking she said the NDC is accusing her. And today we are at the same root and you are saying we should let go.”
Going forward the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has also described the incident as unfortunate, challenges that bedeviled the District Level Elections held nationwide on Tuesday, December 19.
CODEO blamed the Electoral Commission (EC) for not living up to its task and urged it to do better.
Reports of non-functioning of the Biometric Verification Device (BVD) used for verification and delays in the distribution of voting items to some centres hampered the process in some areas.
Also, voting in some centres was postponed due to errors detected on the ballot papers.
AYM Kukah.E:mail:kukahalexander7@gmail.com
