There’s Nothing Untoward About EC’s Handling of Electoral Process- Dame
The Attorney-General and the Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has defended the Electoral Commission’s mode of handling processes in the lead-up to the December Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Though the opposition party has raised a number of concerns about how the Commission is going about the processes, the A-G, during an address at the Ghana Bar Conference on September 9, 2024, said the body headed by Jean Mensah has proven it capacity and competence, citing the 2020 polls.
He asserted that the credibility of Ghanaian democracy and the conduct of elections in this country cannot be denied by objective Ghanaians.
“We must resist the vain efforts of naysayers who constantly sow seeds of doubt about the credibility of Ghanaian elections. The Electoral Commission of Ghana has had a sound appreciation of the sacred constitutional responsibility it bears to the people of Ghana since 1992. Remarkably, it remained unshaken in its quest even in the teeth of COVID-19 and rose to the occasion in 2020 in delivering an internationally affirmed free, fair, and perhaps, the most transparent elections since the inception of the Constitution in 1992.”
The Minister for Justice realizes that the EC has gone by its mandate which includes the demarcation of boundaries, registration of eligible voters, the creation of voters’ register, printing of ballot papers, distribution of ballot papers to voting centres, supervision of voting, the casting of votes, counting and processing of the votes, the declaration of the winner or winners, etc.
He thus judged, “So far, I have not noticed anything untoward about the Electoral Commission’s handling of the process.”
He further cautioned against taking the country’s democracy for granted.
“For this reason, we continue to talk about these things as a way of entrenching those undoubted values we hold dear and warding off potential wreckers of the peace of the nation. We must steadfastly resist the dishonourable deeds of those who without cause, sow seeds of doubt in the ability of the Electoral Commission to organise a credible election. We must deplore, jettison and without any reservation, reject rhetoric which fans the flames of conflict,” he added.
