Don’t engage tainted lawyers - Amaliba to EC

A private legal practitioner, Abraham Amaliba, is warning the Electoral Commission against engaging politically tainted lawyers in its operations for the impending elections.

This follows proposals from the Ghana Bar Association for the EC to train members of the association to serve as officers in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential polls.

The Electoral Commission has hinted that it will rely on professionals to conduct the upcoming elections in compliance with the recommendations of Supreme Court after hearing the 2012 election petition.

Speaking to Starr News, the member of the legal team of the governing National Democratic Congress argued engaging members of the GBA, who have openly announced their political affiliation will compromise the integrity of the system.

“If you have somebody who is politically known to be a sympathizer of a political party, chances are that whatever is done by that person within the electoral process will be looked at negatively as favoring his side of the political divide.

“We don’t want issues of that nature to come up where they will say that because Amaliba was manning a particular polling station or was in charge of a particular pink sheet that’s why the NDC won,” he warned.

“Perceptions are what I’m talking about, and it’s important to ensure that we don’t raise the tension by allowing known political activists who are lawyers to be part of the process,” he added.