Martin Amidu, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the NDC government, has asked all patriotic Ghanaians to resist the clear attempt by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei, to rig the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, ostensibly to favour President John Mahama and the governing NDC.
According to Mr Amidu, the dogged effort by the EC to ensure that the name of the Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People’s Party, Papa Kwesi Nduom, and others do not appear at the presidential ballot paper was part of the rigging plot.
“My worry is that the Commissioner is still deliberately determined to rig the elections by disqualifying the 13 candidates,” he said yesterday in a statement to the media.
“In the meantime patriotic citizens should continue defending the Constitution by vigilantly watching the rigging conduct of the Commissioner in this election year,” the stated.
The worries of Mr Amidu are shared by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana, which has expressed the fears that the conduct of the EC could lead to constitutional crisis, if not checked.
“We call on all civil society organizations, professional bodies, faith-based groups, youth groups, the union movement, academia, and indeed on all citizens of Ghana to support the Center’s call to the EC to avoid a potential constitutional crisis,” the Centre made the appeal in a statement issued yesterday and signed by Dr Kojo Asante, a Research Fellow.
The statement added: “The Center wishes to remind the EC and all key election stakeholders that democratic governance and credible elections, in particular, are what is at stake for Ghanaians and for Ghana on December 7. Failure to manage the electoral process wisely puts our democracy at risk.”
These concerns come at a time the opposition New Patriotic Party has accused the EC of discrimination and acting in bad faith in the way and manner it is dealing with the party, especially with regards to having access to the final lists of the voters register.
Addressing a press conference Monday, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, NPP Director of Elections, said the EC had exposed it biases against the party, having served the NDC and the CPP with the full list of the voters register.
"The Commission has refused to give us a hard copy version, as used to be the practice for every general election. So we ask: for which political parties was the EC printing copies of the register over the last couple of weeks?" the party queried.
The party recalled that in 2012 it only got access to the complete list of the voters' register just three days before December 7, wondering why the Commission is not only repeating that grave mistake this year but also discriminating against the party to have access to the register.
The voters register, according to the NPP, should contain the Proxy List, Transfer List, Special Voters List and Absentee Voters List.
According to the party, "the version given to the New Patriotic Party had none of the above lists. We have officially complained about this to the EC, which has acknowledged this anomaly but is only telling us to wait. We know for a fact that the ruling National Democratic Congress has the full and final list, including the Proxy List, Transfer List, Special Voters List and Absentee Voters List."