If the so-called Independent Electoral Commission (EC) is unable to comply with the six-day Supreme Court’s ultimatum to compile and submit a list of the names of all eligible Ghanaian voters who used their National Health Insurance (NHIS) Cards to establish their eligibility to vote, it would not be because the order from the proverbial Apex Court is one that is rather too tall or unreasonable to opportunely fulfill. Rather, it would be primarily because the Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei-led EC has been luridly thumbing its nose at the Supreme Court’s decision for as long as anybody can remember (See “We’ve Begun Compiling Names of NHIS Registrants – EC” Citifmonline.com / Modernghana.com 6/25/16).
The EC has been offensively playing footsie with the Supreme Court’s initial order to expunge the names of all 2012 voters who used their NHIA-issued health-insurance cards to establish their eligibility to vote, even while claiming to be intent on complying with the Ramadan-Nimako Decision. Anybody who has been paying studious attention to the peek-a-boo games of the EC directors, can readily recall that this is at least about the fourth or fifth time that the EC Chairwoman has issued a public statement saying that the Commission intended to faithfully comply with the same. It is obvious that the strategy here was to make public pretense to complying with the Apex Court’s order while, in reality, smugly going back to business as usual.
The rationale here, of course, is that since the judicial arm of government is not constitutionally mandated to enforce the law, somehow, doing nothing and patiently allowing for some time to elapse would eventually allow the “Independent” Electoral Commission to suavely play by the Afari-Gyan book with reckless abandon or impunity. If the EC is not able to comply with the Wood Supreme Court’s order, it would indisputably vindicate the preceding observation, which is simply that Mrs. Osei and her associate co-commissioners never intended to comply with the Ramadan-Nimako Decision anyway. In such a situation, the EC commissioners would be liable for being criminally guilty of being in contempt of the Apex Court. Which also makes these commissioners liable to be either removed from office or be both liable to dismissal and rigorous prosecution for attempting to deliberately and treasonously undermine Ghanaian democracy, with the possible intent of fomenting civil strife or causing the dissolution of the country as we know it.
So far, we have been alerted by the democracy-watch civil-society organization called the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) that the EC may not be able to fully comply with the Supreme Court order because a substantial chunk of the requested data may already have been irretrievably destroyed. If such permanent data destruction was effected in response to the initial Apex Court order, and can be forensically proven to have been the case, then, of course, this is all well and good. On the other hand, if the EC administrators are unable to convince Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and her associates about the purported destruction of the aforesaid data, then it is almost certain that some necks are bound to be put on the chopping block.
There is absolutely no reason, whatsoever, for Ghanaian taxpayers to support and/or underwrite the comfortable salaries of scofflaws and make-believe knuckleheads. We have come too far as a nation to be cynically taken for a ride by a few pathological megalomaniacs and their equally obdurate surrogate operatives at the EC. It is also more than quite clear that the EC Chairwoman, Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei, may have outlived her usefulness, effectiveness and competence as Ghana’s Chief Returning Officer.
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