President of policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has accused the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei of hurting the reputation of the commission with some of her decisions.
According to him, Charlotte Osei performed creditably well at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) where she headed till her new role at the EC.
“At the NCCE she did a stellar job, I’m not one of those who sit from afar and criticize just for criticizing, we went closer and we understood that she did really well at the NCCE but she is messing up at the EC,” Franklin Cudjoe said on the Big Issue today [Saturday, November 12, 2016].
Background
The IMANI boss’ comment comes on the back of accusations by some political parties that the Electoral Commission under Charlotte Osei’s leadership has not been fair to them especially within the nomination period.
The EC has come under pressure for disqualifying some presidential aspirants from the 2016 presidential race.
The EC had explained that it disqualified the presidential hopefuls which included the Progressive People’s Party’s Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Party because of some errors on their nomination forms.
They however dragged the EC to court over the decision. The Supreme Court on November 7, 2016 ordered the EC to extend the deadline for the nomination period, which afforded the parties to rectify the errors on the nomination forms but some including Hassan Ayariga of the All People’s Congress (APC) failed to make it into the race.
Even though some of the aspirants were able to correct the errors on their nomination forms and made it to the ballot, Mrs. Osei actions are still been questioned.
Lawsuits show EC has lost focus
Financial analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford about a week ago accused the commission of losing focus.
He argued that the numerous court cases the EC has had to defend in court shows that the commission “has lost its focus on who it is representing and what its job is.”
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