Professor Jega's praise of EC boss 'insignificant' – Lecturer

The commendation of Ghana’s Electoral Commission Chair, Mrs Charlotte Osei, by the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria, Professor Attahiru Jega, is “insignificant” to the level of confidence Ghanaians themselves have in the EC as far as preparations towards the December 7 polls are concerned, Dr Eric Opoku Mensah, Head of the Communications Department of the University of Cape Coast has said.

“In this particular instance, I think that his [Prof Jega’s] utterances are quite insignificant in terms of getting Ghanaians to have a certain confidence in the system.

“I don’t think his words will engender that kind of confidence. I think that what we are seeing and hearing on TV with respect t to the law courts is so overpowering and inundating on the minds of Ghanaians that these expressions of confidence in our system outside our borders will not be able to mitigate that,” Dr Opoku Mensah told Prince Minkah on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Friday.
According to Prof, who won a lot of praise for conducting a successful election for Nigeria, Mrs Osei is doing a good job and should be commended. He urged Mrs Osei not to be swayed by challenges in her way.

“I really believe that she is doing a very commendable job in very difficult circumstances and I want to encourage her. She must remain focused,” Prof Jega indicated in an interview with Ghana Decides, an initiative by Blogging Ghana, which was transmitted live on Facebook on Thursday, November 3.

Meanwhile, the EC who has been inundated with several lawsuits due to disqualifications of some presidential nominees has expressed confidence that all legal issues regarding the December 7 election process will be resolved in time before the December 7 general elections in Ghana.

“We will not allow law suits to subvert the process and so we are going to get a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court likely this week. At the latest, early next week, but in the meantime, we have started the process of printing the parliamentary ballot papers to make up some of the time and so we are in a good place to meet the December 7 date,” she told BBC Africa’s Akwasi Sarpong.