EC Boss speaks

 The Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan says his silence over attacks and several allegations against his personality is because of his deep respect for the judicial process, especially as the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court is yet to determine a case of electoral irregularity petition against the Commission. 

According to the EC’s boss, he finds it difficult to understand why some members of the society have singled him out of the entire Electoral Commission, the body responsible for the overall conduct of the election in question, for public ridicule and abuse. 

He wondered also, why people will go to the extent of pronouncing him dead on four occasions and also claiming that he has been under spiritual attack ostensibly for his role in the just-ended national elections. 

In all these circumstances, Dr. Afari Gyan emphasized that he is undaunted. The EC’s Chairman was speaking at the closing of a two-day Review Meeting on the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. 

The review meeting was jointly organized by the EC and the KAB Governance Consult with funds from the UK’s Department for International Development.

 It was attended by representatives of Faith-Based Organizations, the media, civil society organizations, the Ghana Blinds Union among other identifiable institutions. 

The participants reviewed the conduct of the national elections in the Ashanti region with the view to chatting the new way forward. 

Dr. Afari Gyan noted that any honest person would admit the fact that some of the technical challenges of the voting process resulting from the biometric verification machines were expected since it was the first time; the world over that such a technology was being used in the conduct of any public elections. 

According to him, since Ghana’s successful application of the novelty, a number of countries have contacted the EC for advice and directions on how similar technology could be applied in their respective countries. 

On the creation of the 45 new constituencies just before the elections, Dr. Afari Gyan insisted that the exercise was a necessity before the general elections; otherwise four newly created administrative districts in the Ashanti would have been denied a representation in the current Parliament. 

He stressed that even though the EC won all the legal cases brought against it, the attempts to stop the creation of the constituencies unnecessarily delayed the exercise. 

Asked why the EC will insist on a registered voter being biometrically verified before being allowed to vote, in spite of his or her Constitutional right to vote in public elections, the EC Chairman declined to comment saying that the issue has a direct consequence on the pending legal tussle at the Supreme Court.  

GBC