The opposition New Patriotic Party has called on the newly appointed Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei to address the unresolved challenges left by her predecessor, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan.
According to the NPP, she has come at a time when the whole nation is expectant of an electoral system that will be widely accepted by all stakeholders.
“We hope she will contribute immensely to the development of our democratic dispensation and it’s growth, by helping to resolve the many challenges she is inheriting from Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, her predecessor,” the NPP stated in a statement signed by its chairman, Paul Afoko.
[contextly_sidebar id=”LjXtr7iLJefGUjSeklU9aLxsHvADlWKn”]Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan who served as the chairman for close to two decades came under attack over some controversial decisions he took while in office.
Beginning of Afari Gyan’s woes
His woes started before and after the 2012 general elections.
As part of measures to ensure a more credible and transparent election, in 2012, the Electoral Commission among other things, introduced a biometric voter registration and identification system.
The move was highly commended by the various political parties in the country.
The EC also issued the no-verification-no-vote directive.
As part of the directive, any voter who could not be identified by the biometric device was not to be allowed to vote.
The number of constituencies in the country were also increased from 230 to 275 amidst controversies.
2012 election and aftermath
On election day, December 7 2012, the biometric devices could not authenticate some people because some had broken down and others could not work due to lack of power.
These and other reasons forced the election to enter day two because a lot of people had not voted as at the close of polls on December 7.
Election petition
Though the NPP rejected the outcome of the results claiming there were widespread irregularities recorded in some centres, Dr. Afari Gyan went ahead to declare John Dramani Mahama as the president-elect.
The NPP challenged the results at the Supreme Court alleging that some of the results were also rigged to favour NDC’s presidential candidate, John Dramani Mahama.
However, the Supreme Court after eight months affirmed President Mahama as the winner of the 2012 elections.
District Assembly Election
In February this year, the Supreme Court canceled the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections which was scheduled to take place on March 3, 2015.
An aspiring assembly man, Benjamin Eyi Mensah dragged the EC to court after he was denied the opportunity to contest in the elections.
He said he was denied the opportunity despite meeting all conditions to contest but the EC closed nominations before the maturation of the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 85.
The Justice William Atuguba-led panel of Judges ruled in favour of the fisherman and declared the election “unconstitutional.
The EC later sent to Parliament, a new legislation to enable it re-organize the District Assembly Elections.
The law meant to regulate the conduct of the election, Constitutional Instrument (C.I) 89, matured on June 10, 2015.
Voter registration exercise suspended
The Electoral Commission (EC) on May 19 suspended an ongoing voter registration exercise after stakeholders and political parties kicked against the exercise.
The political parties notably, NPP, NDC and PNC argued that the offends Public Elections Regulation 2012 C.I. 72 which states clearly how registration of eligible voters must be done.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin