Daily Guide Editorial: The ‘let EC decide’ Mahama’s call

“State your case and let EC decide.” This statement was made by then President John Mahama on 8th October 2015 when he reacted to the demand that the voters’ register be compiled afresh.

Had he said the forgone today he would have been hailed as a hero and pass for a statesman. Today, he cannot say this without incurring the wrath of his party members who think that a freshly made voters’ register would not be in the interest of their electoral fortune.

He said so when he was at the helm and appeared to have leverage over the EC somewhat, hence the seeming supporting role he ceaselessly played for the election management body.

Not so now today when his sway over the EC is now history; the guard has changed at the EC and so anything they do including introducing best practices to obviate question marks over verdicts for him are intended to deny him vital votes. Yesterday the recently impaneled advisory body for the EC after a meeting with the latter called for calm from the political parties.

The subject of compiling a new voters’ register has on purpose been fueled by the NDC to create a semblance of tension in the country over the project. We do not see any tension at all. Describing the noise the NDC intends to make in the streets of the regional capitals as tension is accepting the narrative of the deceptive political grouping which we should not.

It is their stock-in-trade to hit the streets and threaten mayhem to cow the country into submission. The traits of what their Elections’ Director Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah demanded of their party are clearly manifesting which are anything but decent and civil.

While the call for calm by the advisory board is appreciated and timely, we would be quick to express our wonder as to why both the ruling party NPP and the opposition would be taking positions on the subject of a new voters’ register when the decision lies on the bosom of the EC.

On the part of the opposition NDC, we are at our wits’ end as to why they would not want the voters’ register to be replaced even after its close to a decade service to the nation.

The ruling NPP too should not engage the NDC in any form on the subject so the sanctity of the independence of the EC would be totally maintained.

Although the posture of the NDC is the reason why the NPP sometimes hits the media terrain in reaction we would ask that both parties as former President John Mahama said in 2015 allow the EC to do as they deem fit. The former President’s call in 2015 is as relevant today as it was when he uttered it.

The EC is one body which should not under any circumstance encounter tapering of its independence by the nagging and even threats of political parties as the NDC elections director sought to do and before him the party’s national chairman.