EC is a "useless and bogus institution" - Obiri Boahene

Deputy General Secretary of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawyer Obiri Boahen has described the Electoral Commission (EC) as a useless and bogus'' institution, with its activities leading to Ghana's destruction, ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Lawyer Obiri Boahene said the NPP is very much worried about the conduct of the EC, with the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) turning to be the spokesperson of the electoral body.

According to him, he is personally worried about the conduct of the EC. The firebrand politician further described the EC is a bias, and corrupt.

''Honestly in my candid opinion; me I'm not happy about the conduct of the Electoral Commission. I do not want to call it as a bogus and useless institution but I think that it deserves the description. The EC should be seen as a referee, but when the referee is corrupt and bias, we have the right to complain,'' he posited.

Lawyer Obiri Boahene said he was extremely surprised to hear the Commissioner, Madam Charlotte Osei 'say that the Commission will extend the limited registration exercise' after it turned out that some tertiary students threatened to sue the EC for disenfranchising them from registering.

The University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) during the limited registration exercise complained that the EC failed to provide adequate registration centres for their members; a situation the student body noted disenfranchised over 80% of their members from registering.

The EC says it will not extend the days for registration as proposed by some observers and the students.

But lawyer Obiri Boahene commenting on the position of the EC said, ''speaking as a lawyer; I was surprised to hear the Commissioner say that they will not extend the registration exercise to allow the students who were disenfranchised to do so. I was extremely surprised that a lawyer of her calibre could speak like a public announcer at Abronya. I am not insulting her because she is behaving like an experienced and incompetent Commissioner.''

Lawyer Obiri Boahene opine the EC is threading on dangerous grounds, and if care is not taken we could have a repeat of the infamous Supreme Court Law Report case between one Brigadier Tana and the Electoral Commission who in 1996 sued the electoral body for disenfranchising him during a registration exercise.

The Supreme Court he said by a unanimous decision in 1997 ruled in favour of the Plaintiff, therefore, should the student body sue the EC, we could have a repeat of that case because not allowing eligible persons to registration is an infringement on the rights of that individual.

The lawyer explained, his description of the EC as a bogus and useless institution should not be seen as harsh because, they are acting irresponsibly as an institution meant to discharge its duties with integrity, transparency and accountability.

Lawyer Obiri Boahene stressed, ''the 2016 elections will lead to the destruction of Ghana because of activities of the Electoral Commission.''

He further chided the EC for selecting only a few centres for the exercise when they should have opened up more centres to cover the numbers that turned up for the registration.

The EC he indicated have no excuse to claim it is financially constraint to have done the exercise at all its polling centres after they wasted state resources to engage in a useless exercise like the so-called re-branding.