NDC views on EC chair nominee Jean Mensa 'doesn’t make sense' – NDP

The National Democratic Party (NDP) has chided the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for opposing the nomination of Mrs. Jean Adukwei Mensa as the new chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana.

According to the NDC, Mrs. Mensa whose nomination was announced by President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday, is unfit to hold the top EC job because she is “a known pro-NPP and on-avowed anti NDC person”.

It said in a statement by its general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia that the party would in due course “provide further and better particulars of the open and covert activities of Jean Mensa which makes her unfit to occupy the high position”.

But reacting to the statement, general secretary of NDP, Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, argued the standpoint of the NDC “does not make sense” because it has not been able to come out with any tangible argument.

Speaking to host of Onua FM’s Yen Sempa, Bright Kwasi Asempa on Tuesday, Alhaji Frimpong said the NDP does not see anything wrong with the nominations of Mrs. Mensa and the two deputies as well as one other nominated by the President.

The nomination of the four officials to the EC followed the removal of Mrs. Charlotte Osei and her two deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwa from office on June 28, 2018 on grounds of “stated misbehavior and incompetence”.

Their removal was on the back of recommendations from a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the three on allegations brought against them by some staff of the Commission in July 2017.

Mr. Samuel Tettey who is currently the Director of Electoral Services at the EC and Dr. Eric Asare Bossman who is the head of the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana are to replace Mr. Sulley and Ms. Opoku Amankwa.

The fourth person, Ms. Asuama Abrefa, who is a corporate legal practitioner, will replace Mrs. Pauline Dadzawa, a Member of the Commission who has since April 30, 2018 retired.

While their removal has been condemned by some Ghanaians as being politically motivated, especially by the National Democratic Congress, the workers of EC lauded the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, for acting on the recommendations of the CJ’s report to remove the three commissioners.

Per Article 70(2), President Akufo-Addo has since July 19 written to the Council of State to advice on the nomination of the four.

“President Akufo-Addo is hopeful that the Council of State will discharge its constitutional duty expeditiously, to enable him make these critical appointments to this very important institution of State,” a statement from the Presidency said on Monday.