GHANA: EC lacks unity under leadership of Charlotte Osei – Amoako Baah

 Dr. Richard Amoako Baah, political science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, has revealed that some elements within the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) do not support the leadership of the Chair, Charlotte Osei, and believes there is no peace within the Commission.
The voters’ register has been the major bone of contention at the EC and they have been under a lot of backlash since the appointment of Mrs Osei. The Supreme Court recently ordered the Commission to furnish it with the full list of persons who registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card as a form of identification, in six days.

“Let’s not forget there are some people within the EC who also do not support the commissioner. “They don’t like the direction of the Commission so they too will be causing trouble and it’s not like they can collude and all of them speak with one voice. So, it is not true, you can bet somebody will leak the information.

“You have a Commission and you appoint a new commissioner who happens to be the youngest person on the Commission and doesn’t have a proven track record or a lot of credibility and there is nothing like that. “The question is why the experienced commissioners should listen to someone who doesn’t know much about the job she is coming to do.”

‘For better or for worse’ Dr Amoako Baah insists that those are some of the reasons why the EC is continuously in the media. He lauded the Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan-era, saying the Commissioners spoke with one voice “for better or for worse and when he was the leader and they listened to him”.

He said pressure groups like Let My Vote Count Alliance are fighting the EC because of seeming division. “Sometimes one of the Deputy Commissioners will come and say something only for the Commissioner to come and say something different so what is going on?” he asked. “That alone should tell you there is no peace there and they don’t agree.”