Doubting the Neutrality of the Electoral Commissioner

on Election December 7, 2012

The Constitution obliges Electoral Commissioners to stay neutral for ensuring unadulterated, fair and credible elections. Similarly, the Constitution mandates them to carry out certain tasks without interference from whomever. Nevertheless, do you (the reader) as a God-fearing Ghanaian, if indeed you are, see Dr Afari Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, as taking a neutral ground on election December 7, 2012?

From empirical observations, I can conclude without fear or favour that Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commissioner, is far tilted towards one side of the political divide. He, as a person, has every right to exercise his universal adult suffrage of one-man one vote however, he likes. He can cast his vote for whichever party he deems merits the crown. Nonetheless, in exercising the functions of his august office, he is not only required, but also obliged, to remain neutral. The public must apparently see whatever he does as coming from a person upholding that obligatory principle of neutrality.

Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, for unexplained reasons has allowed his heart but not his head to rule him as regards the impending elections. To start with, he has adamantly created forty-five additional constituencies. Many a Ghanaian raised an objection. They argued that time is of very essence hence creating the additional constituencies within two months to elections was not convenient enough. The all-powerful Kwadwo Afari-Gyan snubbed all those, though being the majority of Ghanaians, questioning the timing of the creation of the new constituencies.

He also assisted the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to conduct their party primaries to elect their parliamentary candidates for the proposed new constituencies well ahead of the Constitutional Instrument (CI 78) lay before Parliament maturing to make such creations legal. He gave the NDC heads-up.

The criteria for creating the new constituencies are as dubious as Kwadwo Afari-Gyan himself is dodgy. He had not declared, let alone publishing the results of the 2010 Population Census before proceeding to reviewing the constituencies in Ghana. The fact the Constitution mandates the Electoral Commissioner to review the constituencies after every seven-year period or the declaration and publication of population census results, does not necessarily mean he cannot apply his bloody common sense. To review does not always mean adding. You can re-demarcate the boundaries either to reduce the number of the constituencies, add to, or maintain same number but to ensure the population density is almost the same in every constituency.

Anyway, let me insert here what I learned/learnt on a course on Thursday, 25th October 2012. The presenter said, “When you respond to a question on how a problem can be resolved by saying, you have to apply common sense, I totally disagree with you. Common sense is such a big and vague thing to require of anyone. The understanding of someone’s common sense may not be the same to another person. What is common sense to someone may mean differently to the other” What is common sense to majority of Ghanaians is a gargantuan requirement to Kwadwo Afari-Gyan and his NDC apologists.

I am still offering reasons to prove why I cannot trust the Electoral Commissioner to be fair on this December 7, 2012 election. I see him as having created the new constituencies to favour the NDC. He divided most of the NDC strongholds Constituencies into two constituencies.

The Ghana Foreign missions have secretly registered people to vote in December 7, 2012 election. How do we ascertain the actual nationalities, the number of people etc. that registered? Why did Dr. Kwadwo Afar-Gyan not announce the date for the registration exercise that took place in the offices of Ghana High Commissions and Embassies abroad? Why did he not arrange for party representatives to be present to observe the registration exercise? I have a tonne of questions to ask Dr Afari-Gyan but his actions have so much disgusted me, smacking of corruption that I had better stop for the day.

Dr Afari-Gyan is not neutral but stubbornly allied with the NDC indirectly. Whatever he does, he will fail as God has already ordained Nana Dankwa Akuffo-Addo to rule Ghana as of January 2013.

Has Kwadwo Afari-Gyan forgotten that playful but erroneously assumed Latin phrase, "the word tatabuta is buta?" It means, "What God has written is written". Therefore, let not Kwadwo Afari-Gyan seek to erase it.

Rockson Adofo