Former Attorney-General Martin Amidu says Electoral Commission Chairperson, Mrs Charlotte Osei does not appear to understand her constitutional obligations.
According to him, the “letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution on the representation of the people enjoins her to ensure that every political party and its aspiring presidential candidate or an individual aspirant has equal time and opportunity to canvass for the votes of the electorate.”
But Mrs Osei, he believes, appears to misunderstand this duty imposed on her by the Constitution.
Mr. Amidu said this in a statement issued in Accra commenting on assurances by the EC boss that in spite of the avalanche of law suits the Commission is saddled with, the December 7 elections will be successfully organised.
He said the assurance “demonstrates once more the incompetence, inexperience and utter lack of understanding of the letter and the spirit of the 1992 Constitution mandating the Commissioner to supervise the organization of a free, transparent and fair multiparty Presidential Elections.”
The former A-G said, “The election date of 7th December 2016 is just about a month away and the Commissioner has the impudence to tell citizen voters that she is capable of conducting the elections within two weeks.”
He said Mrs Osei is “forgetting that her pride, intransigence and arrogance are already depriving the aspiring candidates of political parties and others who may eventually qualify to be on the ballot of their constitutional right to equal opportunity and time to canvass the electorate for their votes before the elections.”
Plead read the full and unedited statement issued by Mr Amidu below:
THE INEXPERIENCE, INCOMPETENCE AND ARROGANCE OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER IS BECOMING DANGEROUS – MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
The Electoral Commissioner does not appear to understand that the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution on the representation of the people enjoins her to ensure that every political party and its aspiring presidential candidate or an individual aspirant has equal time and opportunity to canvass for the votes of the electorate.
This is why the statement made on behalf of the Commissioner and published on Myjoyonline.com of 2nd November 2016 stating that the Commissioner “will be able to pull off successful parliamentary and presidential elections on December 7 notwithstanding law suits threatening the process” demonstrates once more the incompetence, inexperience and utter lack of understanding of the letter and the spirit of the 1992 Constitution mandating the Commissioner to supervise the organization of a free, transparent and fair multiparty Presidential Elections.
The election date of 7th December 2016 is just about a month away and the Commissioner has the impudence to tell citizen voters that she is capable of conducting the elections within two weeks forgetting that her pride, intransigence and arrogance are already depriving the aspiring candidates of political parties and others who may eventually qualify to be on the ballot of their constitutional right to equal opportunity and time to canvass the electorate for their votes before the elections.
Printing ballot papers for the presidential election means nothing to the rights of a political party and its candidate or individual aspiring candidates and their supporters who might have been deprived of an equal, fair and transparent right to participate in the electioneering campaign “intended to influence the composition and policies of the Government” to be elected.
Every citizen has a fundamental guaranteed right to join a political party and to participate freely with that political party in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideas and other programmes and to sponsor candidates to the office of the President of Ghana.
Such a guaranteed right is rendered nugatory and pointless when candidates have only two weeks to canvass the electorate for support for the elections on 7th December 2016.
There can be no free, transparent and fair elections when any of the disqualified aspiring candidates and any political party sponsoring them have their names added to the ballot more than three weeks belatedly, because the Commissioner’s preferred and approved candidates would have had an unequal advantage over them in the contest for the Presidency. Nobody can convince such candidates, their political parties, and supporters and the objective observer that they had a level playing field for the 7th December 2016 elections within the letter and spirit of the constitution. The Commissioner has effectively rigged the election from day one against them.
I have already said elsewhere that this Commissioner was appointed with a rigging agenda. Let us as citizens defend the Constitution by watching her every step during this election.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
2nd November 2016
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