Afari-Djan Must Resign

Dr Afari-Djan’s credibility has been severely tainted by his handling of the Presidential runoff. At the press conference yesterday to announce the results of the runoff he said among other things that the Tain constituency was unable to vote because of ‘unforeseen circumstances beyond our control.’ He was unable to tell Ghanaians and the world at large exactly why it was not possible for the people of the Tain constituency to exercise their constitutional right.

The BBC World service website reported yesterday that the reason the people of Tain constituency were unable to vote was because of shortage of voting materials. This is unacceptable. The Electoral commission had three weeks as provided in the constitution to organise the Presidential runoff. Therefore if a constituency was unable to exercise their constitutional rights as Ghanaian citizens due to the unavailability of voting material then this is gross incompetence on the part of the Electoral Commission. This incompetence could have disastrous consequences given that the people involved would have be denied of their constitutional rights as well as its implication on the final results of the runoff. Furthermore, it is inconceivable that the Electoral Commission as at yesterday did not know that the people of Tain constituency did not vote on the 28th of December 2008 and their result was among the four which were outstanding as at 29th December 2008. This is appalling and Ghanaians deserve better.

Additionally for the chairman to be economical with the truth to Ghanaians tantamount to dishonesty and he must go. Dr Afrari-Djan was unable to tell Ghanaians the truth. Why should Ghanaians know the actual reasons for the failure of the Tain constituency to vote from the BBC World service website? Is this an admission of guilt or incompetence? In my opinion all these events seem very convenient to the course of a particular candidate. Consequently, Ghanaians cannot have confidence in the chairman of the EC. Dr Afrayi-Djan should have the dignity to resign or be sacked.

There is also the question of trust in an Electoral Commission which is said to be independent. It appears that the system of collating, certifying and announcing results is flawed because after results are certified at the constituency level, they are further changed at EC headquarters in Accra after supposedly new figures emerged from somewhere to inflate the result. The question is when does the EC accept the result as final? Where is the evidence for the EC’s acceptance of the new inflated figures as being authentic? Does the principle of responsibility and accountability exist in Ghana? How are institutions, organisations and individuals made to understand that there are consequences to actions therefore accuracy is essential in the discharge of duty?

By Maame Mbroba , UK