Reconstitute Electoral Commission – Lecturer

The feuding commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana should all be sacked and those found culpable of criminal conduct prosecuted, Dr Bossman Asare, Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, has recommended.

For him, EC boss Charlotte Osei as well as deputies Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwah should be made to “step aside and allow the legal process to work whilst we get the commission reconstituted”.

Following allegations and counter allegations of financial malfeasance and mismanagement, Dr Asare said: “Ghanaians will end up getting value for money if the commission is reconstituted,” adding: “If anything at all I don’t expect the chairperson to have the mandate to be the chairperson of the commission.”

He emphasised in an interview with Joy FM’s Israel Laryea on Tuesday, July 25: “Based on what she has demonstrated I think Ghana will be better off without her as the chairperson of the commission.

“I think the image of the EC has been dented enough. Our EC is considered as one of the best election management bodies in Africa and we knew when Dr Afari Gyan was in charge for several years we didn’t hear of such internal wrangling and minor skirmishes here and there. All of a sudden we have a new commissioner and it appears they cannot work together [with] problems mounting up every now and then.

“Based on information available it seems it was being run with a lot of challenges and people were running the commission as if it was their personal property and when you have such I don’t think we must allow it to get to a point where we say we should allow a full-scale investigation,” he added.

He said the commission would not be efficient even if the disagreements are resolved and the three officials still maintain their posts at the EC.

“Under the current leadership I don’t think the other commissioners will be able to work effectively. Let’s get it reconstituted then we can move forward,” he admonished.