Stubborn EC makes Nov 7 polls ‘doubtful’ – Boahen

Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary polls proposed by the Electoral Commission (EC) for November 7, 2016, may not come off, the opposition New Patriotic Party’s Deputy Secretary Nana Obiri Boahen has told Accra100.5FM.

The EC has just completed the limited voter registration exercise for persons who recently attained suffrage and for other eligible Ghanaians who did not have their names on the country’s voter roll. But a Supreme Court ruling on May 5, 2016, directing the EC to use the existing law to remove the names of persons who got their names on the electoral register by presenting National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) cards (a document the court had earlier ruled was not sufficient proof of citizenship) and re-register them with valid identification or procedure, threatens to derail the electoral body’s plans.

Also, parliament is yet to amend the law for the proposed November 7 date to take effect, while the exhibition of the voters’ register, among others, remains to be done.

The EC has assured Ghanaians that it will meet the deadline, but Mr Boahen has his doubts. He said the EC’s statement released on May 19 saying it would not expunge the names of persons who registered in 2012 with NHIS cards from the voter roll further complicates matters. The decision of the EC, Mr Boahen said, would lead to more litigation as some Ghanaian citizens will likely go to court to compel the election management body to enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court. That, he anticipated, would cause the EC to make sudden changes in its plans towards the 2016 polls.

“That’s why I say the November elections, from what I foresee, I doubt will come off,” he told Chief Jerry Forson on the station’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Friday May 20.

The NPP executive is not the only person to have expressed doubts about the EC pulling off the elections in November. He has company in University of Ghana lecturer Prof Kwasi Agyeman Prempeh and Aburi-Nsawam MP O.B Amoah.

Speaking on the same network in March, Professor Prempeh said: “I do not think there will be rigging. But I will agree with comments by the IEA [Institute of Economic Affairs] and some political parties that the November 7 ballot may not happen,” he stated.

He said the EC was already behind schedule regarding the necessary activities to be undertaken prior to voting – among them registration of new voters, exhibition of the voters’ register – and had been headstrong with its position on certain matters.

He told Accra News on Friday March 4, 2016 that: “What is causing a lot of things to delay is that there are questions concerning the integrity of the register, something that has ended up in court. So, there is the possibility that after all the preparations made by the EC, the court will order the EC to amend the register and some other changes, which could throw all its preparations out of gear”.

He, thus, added his voice to calls on the EC for a new register to avert any last-minute hitches.

For his part, Mr Amoah had, on the day after the apex court’s ruling, told Accra100.5FM that the ruling had set the EC further back in respect of its preparations towards the elections, as it added to the tall list of activities it was racing against time to complete.

First, he said, by bringing the date forward from December 7 to November 7, the EC had not initiated the legal proceedings to amend the law, a procedure, which would involve submitting a proposal before parliament.

“But as I speak with you, we in parliament have not seen anything like that. Because the procedure is that if you gazette that provision, you want to change…you must gazette it two times, three months apart,” he told Chief Jerry Forson.

According to him, beyond the 90-day interval, there must be 10 days before submission before parliament after which the Speaker forwards it to the Council of State. The Council of State will also consider it, for up to a month before it returns to parliament for a second reading by the Constitutional and Legal Committee to submit their report, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority in parliament before a third reading, after which a further two-thirds majority must approve of it.

“But all these things have not happened, so, we cannot wish that elections will happen on November 7 and then it works. What if you do not get the required two-thirds majority from parliament? Currently no one in parliament has two-thirds majority, so, all sides must come into agreement before that can happen, hence the time for implementation of all these is limited.

“Secondly, looking at the EC’s timetable, they have drawn it up to November but now the Supreme Court has ordered that they should change a few things, and it is likely the reforms to be undertaken will go beyond November,” continued the lawmaker.

“So, if you assess the situation and you reckon you will have to push it to December, then you do so, so there is peace. It is better to do it well for all parties to accept the outcome than to rush and not do what you are supposed to do.”