Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul has said President John Dramani Mahama should be reprimanded for announcing a new chairperson for the Electoral Commission despite an impending case at the Supreme Court over the matter.
He questioned the President’s rational for making the appointment.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ypCerXuSj42Lalcvpcwo5veF5vghtyfz”]Though Dominic Nitiwul conceded that looking at her resume, the new EC chair, Charlotte Osei is competent and experienced in both the private and the public sector, because the matter is in court, the president should have waited for the verdict.
“I really have a big problem with the timing of the announcement,” he said in an interview with Citi News.
Citing a previous court case between Abu Ramadan and the EC over the usage of the National Health Insurance card for registration of voters, Nitiwul said the “Supreme court made it very clear to them that they thought that the case was there and it could be decided other way so they should have waited and make it look as if there was a stay of execution even though technically there was not one.”
“I believe it was the same principle that the President should have applied in this matter. But now it is as if the president did not show respect to the court because if any other person were to do that, the courts would come hard on the person.”
Journalist, Richard Dela Sky petitioned the Supreme Court for the interpretation of the Constitution that that mandates how the EC chair should be selected.
However the Supreme Court is yet to determine the matter.
“Now would the court be brave enough to do the same thing to the President? So he has really made the coming of the woman difficult for her because instead of people congratulating her, analyzing her competence, we are looking at whether the timing was right or not. And I don’t know why there was this rush,” Nitiwul said.
He asked that “if the Supreme Court were to say tomorrow that processes by which the President went is not what actually what the constitution actually means, will it mean that her appointment is null and void? Or will the President be directed to do it again?”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana