After the 2012 presidential election petition hearing and its subsequent ruling, electoral reforms seem to have taken centre stage ahead of 2016 polls.

While the apex court judges hinted of electoral reforms, even during the petition hearing, and also gave it prominence in their judgement, the Electoral Commission (EC) has taken the bull by the horn and written officially to all various political parties to submit proposals for reforms by the end of November this year.

In response to the EC’s call for the submission of reforms, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in a statement signed by the party’s National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, wondered whether the call was “genuine” or a “p.r. gimmick”. The party believed the EC Chairman, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, was the main ‘problem’ behind Ghana’s ineffective electoral system, thus any attempt at reforms will amount to nothing.

The NPP’s General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie also known as Sir John, claimed Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has lost credibility and should resign as a matter of urgency before any meaningful electoral reforms, if any, can be done, ahead of the 2016 elections.

But speaking on Adom FM, the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, wondered how the NPP who were declared winners in 2000 and 2008 by the same EC boss, can now question his credibility. To him, the call for Dr. Afari-Gyan’s resignation is rubbish since his line of work has been exceptional.

“So, for all this while that Dr. Afari-Gyan has chaired the EC and been declaring winners of elections which favoured both the NDC and the NPP, were those people not human beings?...Those beating war drums in the NPP after the Supreme Court dismissed their petition and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are the problem now in Ghana.

“…Its time we tell them (NPP and Nana Addo) the truth, Afari-Gyan is not the problem in Ghana, they are the problem. Why can’t they accept the verdict? He quizzed.