The ECOWAS commission is covering up - NPP-USA

The President of the Ecowas Commission, H.E Kadre desire Quedraogo said he was in Ghana during the elections and observed a free and transparent election. (Ghanaweb, March 1, 2013).

NPP-USA believes that the Commission is trying to frantically cover up its incompetence at monitoring elections with such effusions as credited to H.E Quedraogo. It is arrogant and naïve for H.E Quedraogo to think that his mere presence in Ghana, hobnobbing with the incumbency during the elections automatically translates to the elections being fair and transparent.

Yes, the ECOWAS Commission, which came down to supervise the elections in Ghana, must be concerned about the outcome of the election in Ghana at the Supreme Court. After all, they have passed a judgment that the elections were free and fair. The outcome of the case in court will determine if the judgment was correct. It will tell us what some of us know of the ECOWAS Commission and its bureaucrats. It will tell us whether they are competent and capable. It will tell us whether the presence of the so-called International Observers is a farce, which takes place every four years. It will let us know of the relevance of this organization and its procedures. It will tell us whether they just come and spend money, vacation at the expense of the nationals of ECOWAS and rubber stamp fraudulent processes.

Most people can conclude that the ECOWAS Commission has more incentive to cover their shoddy work of rubber-stamping an obvious fraudulent election. Thus, their comments must be seen in this light.

There are a number of questions that one must ask the ECOWAS Commission

· How many people came to observe the elections?
· How many polling stations in each constituency and region did they visit?
· How many collation centers did they visit?
· Did they stay throughout collation of the results at the Constituency collation centers they visited?
· Did they review and understand the pink sheets?
· Did they review the pink sheets and ensure they were those at the polling stations?
· Have they seen the evidence presented by the Petitioners?
· If they have seen the evidence, are they saying the evidence is not valid?
· Do they have documentation of the procedures which they used to support their decision to enable independent people to verify if their procedures were valid to be used in making their judgment?

NPP-USA is appalled that a high ranking bureaucrat of H.E Quedraogo’s stature will not have the presence of mind to restrain himself from making prejudicial statements about a case that is waiting adjudication in the highest court of our country. There is more for the ECOWAS commission to be dealing with than to meddle in Ghanaian politics, especially when they do not have the facts at hand. Mali, Guinea Bissau etc need its attention to straighten things up in those countries.