Afari Gyan deserves commendation - Minority

The Minority in Parliament has stated that the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Afari Gyan deserves some commendation for managing Ghana’s elections since 1992.

This comes after President Mahama delivering the State of the Nation address described the retiring Afari Gyan as an “illustrious” son of Ghana.

Delivering what the minority has described as the ‘true state of the nation address’, minority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said despite Dr. Gyan’s resistance to electoral reforms since 1995, he deserves some commendation.

“The Commissioner has resisted every attempt to reform the electoral process since 1995 including the introduction of Photo ID cards, allowing party agents to move closer to the EC officers to be able to monitor events, issuing political parties with voter register ahead of time and the completion of a more credible voter's register when the occasion has warranted,” he stated.

“That indeed is not to say that Afari Gyan’s electoral commission does not deserve any commendation at all.

"The fact of the matter though is that, we have managed as a nation to move on after every election but a lot has to do with the tolerance of Ghanaians”.

The Suame MP also called on the Electoral Commission to discard the current voter’s register and make preparations for the country to get a new register ahead of the 2016 elections.

“Almost all the political parties are calling for a new voter’s register...since the 2012 voter’s register is very much flawed.

“There has been some unusual increases in voter registration between 2008 and 2012 in certain districts where in the space of four years, registered voters have increased between 44 percent and 72 percent when the annual growth rate of this country is 2.5 percent”.