Peace Council urges EC to be open with its challenges

The National Peace Council (NPC) has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) not to cover up any challenges it may be saddled with in implementing the recommendations of the Supreme Court with regard to electoral reforms.

It said the Commission should rather be open to get all hands to help in surmounting those challenges.

“They should let the civil society know what difficulties they are facing in respect of the implementation of [the recommendations of the nine justices] so that we can all support them to ensure that come 2016, we will not encounter any problems,” said Reverend Professor Emmanuel Kwesi Asante, the National Chairman of the Peace Council.

He was speaking exclusively to TV3’s William Evans Nkum on Monday, September 1 in the Ashanti Region capital of Kumasi.

He said the EC should not trifle with the recommendations coming from “the eminent judges of the land."

“You cannot talk about peace in the country without talking about justice,” Rev. Prof. Asante noted, “so if you have eminent judges making a recommendation for reforms with the Electoral Commission, then you are talking about people who say let’s put this in place to avoid the kind of situation to cause us to go back to the courts to seek justice.”

The 2012 Presidential Election saw a major shake-up as its result was contested at the Supreme Court by the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and two others – his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and then Chairman of NPP Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

The Electoral Commission was one of the three respondents summoned by the landmark petition.

The National Peace Council Chairman said the recommendations after the petition offer the very foundation of peace in the country.

“We wish that the EC will take these recommendations seriously and begin to have them implemented because they are very important and are crucial for the peace of this country and for peaceful elections.”

The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana asked the EC to engage the various political parties in finding solutions to problems they may seem to have.

“I want to believe that they do have some challenges but they should be able to surmount these challenges.”