EU’s report on Ghana’s election process unfair – Jaman North MP

Member of Parliament for Jaman North Ahenkwah Yaw Frederick has criticised the European Union’s Election Observation Mission Report (EU EOM), saying the report failed to capture some bad happenings in the country’s electoral processes, in the run-up to the 2020 polls.

Reacting to the report that focuses on the December presidential and parliamentary elections on Morning Update on TV XYZ, the NDC MP indicated that some Ghanaians in his constituency were disenfranchised through the Electoral Commission’s voter registration exercise that took place in June last year.

The report states Ghana’s 2020 election was efficiently organised, saw voters participating freely in large numbers, and successfully met a range of international standards.

But Ahenkwah disagreed with the EU’s findings indicated that he could “not entirely rubbish the report” because there are some recommendations that need to be adopted. However, critiquing the report he said: “certain things were said in the report that was not the true reflection of what happened during the compilation of the register” through to voting and counting.

“Yourself and I can attest to the fact that during the registration period legitimate Ghanaians from Ghana were prevented from registering using the state security apparatus,” he said explaining that most of the Ghanaians who were prevented were only working in neighbouring country and needed to register.

He said the government used state security to scare voters from registering with the EC in NDC strongholds, stressing “Military were detailed to all these areas. You know what happened in Aflao. Even in my place, all the entry routes were packed with security men just to prevent the Ghanaians who happened to be outside the country from coming to register.”

In Banda, for instance, a neighbouring constituency, the MP noted residents from the Volta Region who are fishermen in the area were also prevented by state security men from registering to exercise their franchise.

How do you capture this as fair?” he quizzed when host Eric Ahianyo said the government was very clear on the deployment of security was to deal with security threats and to also prevent COVID-19 from spreading from other countries to Ghana via the country’s land borders.

“Is COVID-19 over? The security threats are we out of those threats?” he asked and wondered why the military have been taken away from the borders when COVID-19 is still in the country.

The EU EOM report which was prepared without political parties never discussed with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) and went to Parliament on the blind side of all political parties.

The NDC has expressed concerns over the report saying it can not be taken lightly because it is not a true representation of Ghana’s election process yet plays a crucial role in the international space and can make and unmake the reputation of Ghana.

Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Peter Otokunor who spoke to Joy News stressed the EU “failed to accurately report and discuss all the issues and all the steps.”

“If you look at the procedure, they actually went through the back door even in Parliament and that is where they encountered several problems and they had to go back and forth three times before the instrument was properly laid. So that problem itself was something that was supposed to be reported by the EU.

He said “We expected that the EU will report on some of these critical issues” and added “because you are doing comprehensive monitoring of the elections, so all the fallouts during the registration exercise; the stabbing of Silas Wulochamey in Banda, the shooting at Dormaa Central” should have been captured in the report.