According to the national electoral body, it has adequately tested and ensured all the devices deployed are working efficiently.

[contextly_sidebar id=”lyecvtZWwcPGOb6NvVowy196Q4R6k8rK”]Yussif Ayuba, a Deputy Drector of Communications at the Commission in an interview on Eyewitness News, said it was impossible for the EC to deliberately deploy faulty BVDs as speculated by the NPP.

“..That cannot be possible, and it is not true that the Electoral Commission is going to deploy faulty BVDs to the strongholds of the New Patriotic Party. It is never true, and it is not possible for the Electoral Commission to hatch something of this nature,” he said.

According to him, the EC has ensured that all the available BVDs are intact, and has adequately prepared a backup plan for the devices that may inadvertently breakdown during the upcoming polls.

“These BVDs we’ve spoken a lot about it, and we’ve said we are going to deploy 2 BVDs per polling station, and in addition to that, we’ll have backups at the constituency level and also at the regional level.”

He expressed worry that some political parties fail to inform the EC first about their challenges with the systems put in place ahead of the election; but instead resort to the media to make their grievances public.

He called for a better collaboration between the Commission and the various political parties, to ensure the elections are free, fair and transparent.

“It is a stakeholder collaboration. It is not just the Electoral Commission that will ensure that the elections are peaceful. Every Ghanaian, every political party has a stake in ensuring that all these things are achieved.”

“Sometimes when we hear some of these issues, it looks a bit strange to us. We would want the political parties to collaborate with the Electoral Commission more so that if problems are identified, then we solve them as a collective.”

The NPP has in recent times raised a number of concerns about some of the Electoral Commission’s actions ahead of the elections.

Recently, the party said the Commission had printed its logo without the party’s initials, as has been done for the other political parties. It also accused the EC of authorising the printing of pink sheets without serial numbers which it said was illegal.

The NPP’s actions appear to indicate a situation of mistrust for the EC; but the Yussif Ayuba says the Commission has been transparent and open to the parties.

“The Commission has been very open to all stakeholders in the electoral process. You’ll realize that in addition to having IPAC meetings, the commission has even come up with walk in sessions…. you don’t need a prior appointment with the EC when you have a concern. You will have access to all officers who will address your concerns.”

The EC later released the statement below to this effect:

EC HAS NO PLAN TO DEPLOY FAULTY BVDs

We would like to assure the general public, particularly those who are voting on December 7 that the Commission does NOT deploy faulty Biometric Verification Devices (BVDs) for elections. All our BVDs are fully tested to ensure their optimum functionality before they are deployed for electoral activities.

Therefore it is totally inaccurate for any political stakeholder to claim that they have uncovered a non-existent plot by the Commission to deploy faulty machines to their strongholds.
For the avoidance of doubt, we would like to repeat that on election day, we plan to do the following:

1. The Commission will deploy 2 BVDs to each of the 28,992 polling stations across the country. In total, the Commission is deploying over 70,000 well tested BVDs on election day.

2. The Commission has made provision for sufficient backups at each of the 216 District Offices. These will be deployed to any polling station which would require them. As a result, we do not expect any polling station to operate without a fully functioning BVD.

3. All staff who would be operating the BVDs on election day are currently undergoing rigorous training to prepare them for the task ahead.

4. Additionally, 4 technicians will be deployed to each of the 216 district offices to provide technical support and rapid response to each of the polling stations to deal with any unforeseen technical challenges at any polling station within the district on election day.

5. These same machines were used in all the by-elections we have conducted since 2013 and the district level elections in 2015 without any challenge or complaints.

6. It had been agreed at IPAC that in case of failure of any of the machines to verify a registered voter, provision has been made for manual verification of the voter in order not to disenfranchise him/her.

7. Finally, we would like to urge any stakeholder in the elections who claims to have “uncovered a plot” to deploy malfunctioning BVDs to its strongholds to make details of the said plot available to the Commission to enable us take preemptive actions to forestall its occurrence. It does not help anyone to just put out such claims in the media without providing any iota of proof.

We would like to emphasise that the ‘Special Walk-in Service’ created by the Commission, is an additional platform for the political parties to table all their concerns and issues for urgent discussion and resolution. We urge them to take advantage of it for the good of the electoral process.

Thank you.

Signed:

ERIC KOFI DZAKPASU
Head of Communications

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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I am not sure why anyone would want to argue against your appointment as EC BOSS. Your gender means nothing and nobody really cares if you are a man or woman. Luck had less to do with it than courage, hard work, intelligence and hard-earned confidence.

Of course, the challenges ahead are enormous, difficult and dangerous but the good thing is that these challenges will automatically bow to authorities who stand for truth and transparency. That’s what we expect from your administration. Much has been given to you and much is expected from you.

Madam, may I however remind you that the Ghanaian is no longer stupid, we have grown and are still growing. It is some of our leaders who are still getting comical and childish by the day and if you choose to join the grand scheme of comedy, you will be laughing at your own jokes! Be reminded of what greed and dishonesty can do, they damage your sense of reasoning and make you a recipe of senseless political experiment.

Be strong and graceful and may your words be sensible. The world will not send peacekeepers to Ghana under your watch, neither will refugee camps be created in this country under your administration. We are watching you and we will judge you by your actions and not by your gender or academic credentials.

Posterity will also judge you if this country burns. I wish you well…For if God has brought you to this river, He will definitely help you cross it!! Don’t be another wasted opportunity.

By: Ruth Wewura Guribie

[email protected]

The post A letter to the EC boss [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

I am trying so hard to understand the decisions, the EC’s Chairperson, Charlotte Osei has taken since she took the helm of affairs months ago.

When the Commission launched a new logo instead of implementing the recommendations made by the Supreme Court after the 2013 election petition, I consoled myself with the belief that the logo may be the start of reforms at the EC. While everyone criticized Mrs. Osei, I believed she would learn from the criticisms and secure the public’s faith in the EC. Regrettably,  that logo decision has been followed with one bad decision after the other.

And while I believe, Charlotte Osei is working in tandem with other commissioners, I am convinced of her significant influence over the decisions of the Commission.  I’m worried by both the decisions and her posture in recent times.  The elections are less than 40 days away and instead of seeking consensus, madam and her people are being intransigent.

It is clear the disqualification of the 13 aspirants was needless. The constitution clearly outlines rules for the removal of political parties from the register. The Constitutional Instrument which was drafted by the EC also outlines the rules for the submission and correction of errors. Mrs. Osei did not abide by any of these rules and is now refusing to back down and focus on the important elections at hand. As former Attorney General, Martin Amidu succinctly posited in an article on citifmonline.com on Monday, the EC Chair in the first place failed in her mandate to adequately educate the aspirants on the process of filling their nomination forms.

He argued that Charlotte Osei should be held accountable for the errors which led to the disqualification of 13 of the 17 aspirants.

“Instead of rushing to disqualify them [the aspirants] contrary to the due process of law (particularly the right to alter or amend as provided by law and natural justice) and gloating on her competence in the unlawful application of C.I. 94 she should have resigned for failing in her functions to educate the aspirants for the complex nomination electoral process and its purpose. It is demonstrable failure and an indictment on the competence of the Commissioner that only 4 of her class of 17 political parties and independent aspiring presidential candidates were able to understand and complete the nomination forms without error and to submit them at her own appointed time of 29th and 30th September 2016,” Amidu’s statement added.

And I agree with Mr. Amidu.  The EC chairperson failed to apply even her own rules and for that alone, she should have backtracked from the ‘go-to-court’ tone by now. But the Commission under her watch had the effrontery to issue a statement on Monday, indicating that it would seek a review of a High Court’s decision quashing their disqualification of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.

This may be her attempt to bring what the statement described as ‘finality’ to the situation. It would all be good if there were not other suits against the Commission. It also seems the motivation for these decisions might be the need to be seen as competent but this is a distraction the Commission did and does not need. I hope Mrs. Osei knows that Ghanaians will never forgive her if the elections do not go well. Being EC Chair is not about being in the headlines for the wrong reasons. It is about ensuring a free and fair election as well as promoting peace and stability. I believe in women and I believe in her but I fear  Mrs. Charlotte Osei’s decisions and choices as we proceed will result in trouble. I hope I am wrong.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana , [email protected]
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post Marian Ansah writes : The damage of Charlotte Osei’s many bad mistakes appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Dr Nduom who was until yesterday [October 28] disqualified by the Electoral Commission from the upcoming presidential elections for errors identified on his nomination forms said his party has been advocating for the strengthening of the electoral body to enable it deliver on its mandate effectively.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Z59772VJUOrqd5Z0VIYabx0l8l2rQFZK”]Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis program the Big Issue, he said the PPP’s decision to challenge his disqualification in court was only based on the desire to have his right and that of others duly respected.

“I don’t know Charlotte Osei. I have only met her once. I don’t have any malice in my heart or in my mind towards her. All that we have wanted is to ensure that my rights and the rights of everybody has been recognized and protected.”

He added that “PPP since 2012 have been advocating for the strengthening of the Electoral Commission and have put in place recommendations on paper even after the 2012 elections…that it will be able to apply the political parties’ law evenly across board without fear or favour to anybody and that has been our position,” he said.

Why Nduom went to court

Papa Kwesi Nduom told host Umaru Sanda Amadu that his party was hesitant in going to court to seek redress on the matter and therefore called for a meeting to amicably address the matter but the Electoral Commissioner was not ready to change the commission’s stance and dared all the aggrieved parties to go to court.

“It wasn’t just that they will give me a hearing, but they will give me the opportunity to make amends, to alter whatever it is that they deemed is in error. We went there with the mind that they will indeed grant us that but it was quite apparent that after just a few minutes, what they were seeking to do was to try and see if they could even find some more errors. After about two or three minutes what the commissioner said had made her points and she made the recommendation to the commission and so it will take the commission to reverse the decision… then the Commission and deputy commissioner got up and said the discussions were over,” Nduom noted.

Dr Nduom insisted that the EC was not fair to the PPP because it allowed other political parties to make corrections on their nomination forms but did not give them the same opportunity.

“Why this selective administration of the rules, why? I don’t want to have a quarrel with anybody, this is all about democracy and democracy when it works well, it is about development and prosperity. It is for all of us,” he added.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post I’ve no evil intentions against EC boss – Nduom appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.