I don't earn GHC40,000; My salary could be better - EC Chair

The chair of the Electoral Commission has said on Good Evening Ghana that she does not earn GHS40,000 a month in her position adding that her salary “could be better”.

Asked by host Paul Adom-Otchere if she thought the salary of the EC Chair should be “really good” as a way of insulating her office from bribery attempts by politicians who would want her to rig the elections in their favour, Mrs Charlotte Osei asked: “Why would anyone bribe me, really?” adding that: “I can’t help you [politician] in the election process. You are better off bribing the 45,000 officials and the agents of the other candidates than bribing me.”

According to her, she cannot manipulate the electoral processes in favour of President John Mahama and the governing National Democratic Congress in the December polls.

“It is just not possible under the system. …I believe we should have a process that is so strong that regardless of how malevolent Charlotte Osei wants to be, she should not be able to rig the elections,” she said.

The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has on several occasions accused Mrs Osei of being up to no good as far as the elections are concerned.

However, Mrs Osei said: “For Charlotte Osei to [rig elections], she has to get the support and active involvement of her six co-commissioners, her 10 regional directors, the 200-plus district electoral officers, the 275 returning officers, and their two assistants.”

“Then when you get to the polling stations, for this year’s elections, Charlotte Osei has to let all these people decide to toe one line. You are likely to have over 500,000 agents for candidates per party and two counting agents per party at the collation centres. All these people must actively be working and changing the documents for Charlotte Osei to rig the elections.

“So, I need to convince 500,000-plus people to skew the system in favour of one person. I haven’t figured out how to do that yet and it is not even part of my value system that I will do that. Basically, it is impossible,” she told Paul Adom-Otchere.

Speaking about the NPP’s accusation that she is biased against the party, Mrs Osei said: “We have a high level of mistrust and we tend to focus on persons. …Criticisms by themselves are not bad. All of us, we need criticisms to improve upon whatever we are doing. The problems are unfounded allegations, comments that are without basis….”