AFAG Cautions Electoral Commission And Gov’t

Over

District Assembly Elections

The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG)wishes to express its deep concern and indeed the concerns of many Ghanaians in relation to the way the District Assembly Elections have been conducted and especially, the late postponement of the elections in eight regions with barely hours to go for the scheduled commencement.

It would be recalled that, the Assembly Elections had already been postponed a couple of times. These postponements and the general seemingly lack of seriousness attached to the conduct of these elections for us is unacceptable from an Electoral Commission which has gained tremendous experience since the onset of the 1992 4th Republic

AFAG is concerned not only because of the impact of the poor conduct of the Elections but the implications on the 2012 Elections. Already, it is obvious that the participation in the District Assembly electoral process suffers greatly from general apathy from the populace and it is our believe that this exercise could have been even used to whip up interest in the decentralization process. However, the conduct of the elections by the Electoral Commission which has seen, a national election being organized in phases leaves much to be desired!

It should be noted that the District Assembly Elections are the only Elections which can be an appropriate test for a General election as they are the only National elections conducted at the Polling Stations aside the General Elections. The good old saying is that coming events cast their shadows and if the conduct of these Elections are anything to go by then it raises doubts on the likely conduct of the 2012 General Elections and how prepared the EC would be in 2012.

The Electoral Commission’s reason for postponing the elections in eight regions at the last hour and the subsequent postponement of the Greater Accra elections this dawn was that printing of the ballots had delayed. So far what the EC has failed to tell Ghanaians is whether they received the required funding from government and whether the funding required was received on time or whether the delay was caused by the EC’s own inefficiency. Ghanaians deserve the right to have answers to these questions. AFAG demands the EC to answer to these pertinent questions and make it clear whether the general poor conduct and preparedness of the Elections was wholly the fault of the EC or the fault of the State.

This issue comes just after the Ghana Statistical Service, another state agency, poorly conducted the 2010 Population and Housing census which till date, has left many Ghanaians uncounted.

AFAG finds it hard to accept the performance of such vital state agencies in delivering on its constitutionally mandated roles and thinks that an appropriate solution needs to be found to it immediately to prevent any negative untold repercussions arising out of their performance in the future.

Signed

1. Opoku Davis 0244 861593

2. Bright Acheampong 0276374763

3. Arnold Boateng 0244 294754