If you want accountability from EC, go to parliament, use RTI law – Fatima Abubakar tells Mahama

Fatimatu Abubakar, a member of the legal team of the New Patriotic Party has listed a number of options available to John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress if they want to demand accountability from the Electoral Commission.

According to her, several institutions have been granted power by the constitution to hold public institutions and persons accountable.

Fatima noted that instead of sending a petition to the Supreme Court, John Dramani Mahama could have turned to the available institutions to seek accountability.

“If you invoke a court’s jurisdiction under Article 64(1) it means you are challenging the validity of an election. You don’t go to court and then turn around to say that you are demanding accountability from EC.

“If you want accountability, we have the Public Accounts Committee, RTI and numerous avenues you can seek accountability from the EC. Our institutions are so structured that it shouldn’t take a defeat in an election for one to seek accountability,” she said on Peace FM.

Fatima also dismissed assertions by the NDC that the Electoral Commission was not transparent in the electoral process.

She averred that from the polling station to the office christened ‘strong room’, the EC made available all documents to parties and other stakeholders in the elections.

Her comment follows statements by the Director of Communications for the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, that the party was advancing the interest of Ghanaians by demanding accountability from the EC.

Sammy Gyamfi chided the media for not reporting fairly on the petition and not backing their course to expose the infractions by an institution of the state.