Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana (CARE GHANA) has raised concerns over allegations that the Electoral Commission (EC) is recruiting political party actors as Returning Officers for the elections later in December.
In a statement on April 26, the group says the claims if true, have the potential to undermine the electoral process, and democracy in the country.
“Recruitment of political actors as Returning Officers in competitive elections can introduce troubling conflict of interest that undermines the credibility of the electoral process and potentially erode public confidence in the fairness and neutrality of Electoral Commission,” the statement said. “Politicization of election administration undermines the principles of democracy and jeopardizes the acceptance of election results among the electorate.”
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CARE Ghana has therefore indicated that the actions of the EC are already compromising the election and will challenge “the very essence of democracy practised in the country.”
The allegations were particularly made by the NDC flagbearer, John Mahama who in an interview at the London School of Economics earlier this month, criticized the EC for ‘problematic appointments.”
“Unfortunately, you get a government that comes in that appoints people who have a known partisan record on to the Commission. You as much as possible want to appoint people who are credible, who are respected, who everybody knows would be neutral. But this is a government that has a record of appointing NPP people on to the Electoral Commission,” the former president said on April 12.
But in response to those allegations, the EC issued a two-page rebuttal last Thursday, accusing Mahama of also appointing his partymen during his time as president of Ghana, adding further that the former president finds it convenient to “denigrate” the image of the Commission.
The EC, according to CARE Ghana, has a sacred responsibility to conduct a free and fair election.
Read the full statement below:
