NDC petitions Council of State over appointment of NPP duo to Electoral Commission

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has petitioned the Council of State to reconsider its advice to president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the recent appointment of three members to Ghana's Electoral Commission.

The NDC claims that two of the newly sworn-in members, Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, have deep roots in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and therefore cannot guarantee the neutrality and impartiality of the country's electoral management body.

In a letter written by the NDC’s National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah on Monday, April 17, the party provided evidence to support its claims. The letter states that "it is demonstrably clear that the positions and roles of these [two] appointees within the NPP compromise their capacity to act with any form of neutrality."

According to the NDC, Dr Appiahene has been a patron of the NPP student wing at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) since 2017, and was a member of the party's 2020 National Research and Data Analysis Team. The NDC expressed concern that his appointment to the EC would hamper public confidence in the institution and undermine the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections in Ghana.

The NDC also alleges that Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani is an activist of the ruling party, and that her immediate family has deep roots in the NPP. The party contends that her appointment to the Electoral Commission would compromise the neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the institution.

The NDC is therefore calling on the Council of State to withdraw its advice to the President, and not to be seen as complicit in the appointment "of these patently partisan individuals to the Electoral Commission and to safeguard the integrity of the Council as far as its role in the structure of our governance architecture is concerned."

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the inauguration of the three new commissioner, including Reverend Akua Ofori Boateng, that their decisions were going to be scrutinized like never before. The President urged them not to be cowed into submission, but to let the expectation of the Ghanaian people spur them on to uphold the will of the people.

Mr Asiedu Nketia's letter has been copied to several international and local organizations, including the European Union Observer Team, the African Union Observer Team, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Electoral Commission, and several ambassadors.

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