EC boss hot

Pressure is mounting on the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, to resign her position or be removed from office.

The Progressive Nationalist Forum (PNF), a civil society group, has petitioned the presidency to institute measures to cause her removal from office for allegedly compromising her position by holding another public office as a member of the Board of Ghana Reinsurance Company (a Limited Liability Company with 100% Ghana government shareholding), while serving as the electoral head of the country.

A source at the seat of government hinted that spokesman for PNF, Richard Kwasi Nyamah, yesterday submitted the petition to the presidency to begin the processes for the EC boss’ removal.

He wants President John Mahama to invoke Article 146 of the Constitution which states that “the chairman and the two deputy chairmen of the commission shall not, while they hold office on the commission, hold any other public office.’’

After blowing the whistle on the EC chairperson’s secret position early January, Nyamah is said to have gathered the necessary evidence to make the case that her conduct of serving in and being paid by two state entities flies in the face of the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

He is therefore said to have forwarded a three-page fifteen-paragraph petition to the President for onward transmission to Her Ladyship, the Chief Justice, to commence the processes after a prima facie case is made.

Nyamah is of the view that the EC boss’ belated resignation from Ghana Reinsurance Company Limited smacks of an admission of the breach of Article 44(4) of the country’s Constitution.

He therefore seeks to exercise his right as a citizen to uphold the Constitution against such an act of misconduct, and looks forward to demonstrate that Charlotte Osei exercised grave misjudgement and violated the Constitutional requirements of her office with “terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Court of Appeal” and is therefore no longer fit to remain in that august office.

Sometime last month, Richard Nyamah, who led the campaign for the removal of former Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) chairperson, Lauretta Vivian Lamptey, accused Ms Osei of pocketing money from the Ghana Re which she does not deserve, asking her to refund all payments made to her since her appointment as EC boss.

The EC boss called his bluff when asked on Joy Fm’s ‘News File’ programme, saying that she was waiting for Mr Nyamah’s next line of action.