Charlotte Osei must resign - Lawyer Adofo

A Private Legal Practitioner Kwame Adofo has suggested to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) Mrs Charlotte Osei to willingly resign from her position.

A High Court Judge on Friday directed the EC to allow the presidential nominee of the Progressive People’s Party (NPP) Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom to rectify the anomalies on his nomination forms.

Lawyer Adofo contends the EC boss position is no more tenable, saying the other presidential nominees who were equally disqualified for failing to meet the needed requirement will forever be suspicious of her.

He doubted if President John Dramani Mahama would sack Mrs Osei, calling on her to resign on her own accord.

‘Her position as the EC Chairperson is no longer tenable, she should do the honourable thing by resigning, the other parties are now afraid of her. They are going to be forever suspicious of her for the unfairly treatment meted out to them, even the picture she has given nobody can trust her. And I am saying she should resign her position. Some people may say it’s too late for her to do that but of course she has to resign. It’s absolutely imperative that she resigns. Nobody can trust her especially the parties,’ he fumed.

He said once the errors are corrected, the EC Chair would have no basis of not accepting Dr Nduom’s nomination forms.

According to him, Mrs Osei would have saved herself from this embarrassment if she had executed her work properly.

Lawyer Adofo underscored that the EC chairperson lacks understanding of administrative law and that her conduct was wrong, ‘she should have given the candidates the opportunity to be heard’.

Speaking with Ultimatefmonline.com, he said the possibility of the other affected candidates losing confidence in the EC is very high.

The legal brain applauded the judgement saying it is in the right direction and it is on point.

‘If you are an administrative decision maker and you are about to make a decision that is likely to affect somebody give them an opportunity to be heard. In this case the EC had a duty to let them know that there were errors, but she failed.

It goes to show the level of competence of the Electoral Commissioner, this clearly shows that the Commissioner lacks the understanding of administrative law.

She does not understand her role, in effect all the affected candidates would have their case restored….I think the woman’s position is no longer tenable, because there have been one too many mistakes committed by her. The other parties are not going to have confidence in her again.

The court ruling clearly shows that she has not been fair to them, and there is going to be apprehension of bias. And therefore I think her decision is no longer tenable. She cannot clearly say she is unable to understand, she must understand her position, accept the nomination forms and peruse it, whether it’s going to be satisfactory or non satisfactory before she can make a decision. If she says she cannot accept, then she is been biased,’ he said.