Why this shameless copycatting?

For two decades, Ghana scheduled its general elections for December quadrennially or every four years. And so it came as quite interesting in its seventh electoral season, when the country’s Electoral Commission decided to schedule this year’s general election at exactly about the same time – actually just a day before – that of the United States. The difference here is that since parliamentary elections are held quadrennially as well, Ghana will not be having mid-term elections, a common occurrence here in the United States. The latter often entails both congressional and senatorial elections. Eventually, Ghana is almost certain to completely duplicate the electoral culture of the Americans. Just when this will occur is only a matter of time rather than guesswork.

The reason given for moving Ghana’s election day a month down the calendar is ostensibly to offer ample time for the administrative transfer of duties, especially where such transfer occurs between two different political parties and their leaders. The cutoff date for official handing over ceremonies which, here in the United States, takes place January 20th every four years, has yet to be determined by Ghana’s political movers and shakers. For purposes of successfully undertaking the November 7 general election, Electoral Commission’s Chair Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei recently constituted an 18-member Electoral Committee of which she is the chair (See “EC Sets Up 18-Member C’tee for Nov. Polls” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/8/16).

Among the members of the aforesaid committee are the Acting Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Director-General of Police Operations, Mr. Christian Tetteh Yohuno, who also has the rank of Commissioner of Police (COP). It is hoped that the Commissioner of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) will be invited aboard this 18-member Election Steering Committee, if Commissioner Osei has not already done so.

What we ought to concern ourselves with presently is not whether 8 or 18 people with expertise or professional experience relevant to Election 2016 get to sit on the inaugurated Electoral/Election Committee. What matters most is that all logistical issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of all the key players or so-called stakeholders involved. And on the latter score, of course, I am alluding to the imperative need for all eligible and prospective voters to be issued a National Identification Card (NIC). For without the ready availability of an NIC to all eligible and prospective voters, the integrity of Election 2016 cannot be ensured and the consequences of such a situation would not augur well for the steady and robust development of Ghanaian democracy.

Needless to say, cosmetologizing our electoral system with the establishment of make-believe committees would not amount to much, if the National Voters’ Register continues to be as unacceptably padded or bloated as seems to be currently the case. Among the major tasks facing Commissioner Osei is the imperative need to ensure that no constituency returns a polling volume or numbers that far exceed that which is mandated by the country’s 1992 Constitution, as was riotously and rampantly the case when Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan headed the EC. If possible, the Ghana Armed Forces could be engaged to help supervise the election in areas of the country that are widely known to be hermetically partisan, or whose locals are in the routine and notorious habit of making it extremely difficult for their political opponents to peacefully exercise their franchise.

In the final analysis, the credibility of the 2016 general election would be less dependent on whether the electoral process was keenly contested by the two major players involved, than whether fair and unhindered access was allowed all who qualified to actively participate in it.

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