EC appointment: We’ll sue Mahama if he contradicts constitution – Group

A group calling itself Democratic Youth for Action (DYA) is threatening to sue President John Dramani Mahama if he goes contrary to the provision of the constitution in the appointment of a new Chairman of the Electoral Commission(EC).

“Should the President go contrary to the dictates of the constitution, we will go take his actions to the Supreme Court for interpretation…,”the General Secretary of the group, Samuel Dzapasu said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”M3owev2vpnl3KNEhQbpviMotrE04syek”]The Council of State is supposed to advise the President on who should be appointed as EC Chair to replace Dr. Afari Gyan but there is mounting pressure on him[Mahama] to broaden the scope of consultation.

Speaking to Citi News, the Mr. Dzapasu advised President Mahama not to bow to pressure from opposition element.

“Historically, evidence shows that whoever appoints an Electoral Commissioner has never been the reason why they won or lost the elections.”

He remarked that since 1992, the country has always had “7 members of the Electoral Commission and there has never been a time that we found or we heard that there has been so much noise being made about the appointment of the EC Boss.”

“Afari Gyan was not the first EC Boss, he came in 1993.In 1993, Rawlings appointed seven members to the Electoral Commission and in 2000 all those members were on board when Rawlings’ party lost power.2004 Kufuor replaced 4 of them, one having passed away, three having gone on retirement Should we see the appointment of one member as one that is going to affect the outcome of the elections.”

Don’t complicate appointment of EC Chair 

Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations Office for West Africa UNOWA, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas has watered down calls on President Mahama to engage in broader consultations on the appointment of the next chairperson of the Electoral Commission. –

“You are talking of constitutional issues and constitutional authorities granted to Presidents and other players and so let us go strictly according to the stipulation of the constitution,” Chambas said.

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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah