By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

The widely reported arrests of two high-ranking officials of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC), brings to a logical conclusion what many of us have always suspected and have been maintaining for quite awhile – that it is about time that the Electoral Commissioner was relieved of his long-held post (See “Two EC Directors Arrested for Alleged Bribery” MyJoyOnline.com 10/22/12).

Indeed, it ought to be obvious to even the least informed Ghanaian citizen, by now, that the former Political Science lecturer of the University of Ghana has totally lost control of his office and, with the latter occurrence, the confidence of the country’s electorate at large. And unless something is promptly done about it by Parliament, the peaceful outcome of Election 2012 may not be guaranteed.

Well, for those of our readers who may not have learned about the same, the two senior directors of the Electoral Commission who were arrested at noon yesterday (10/22/12) are Messrs. Kofi Asumani and Asante Kissi, Director of Elections and Director of Logistics, respectively. The two were reportedly arrested after they attempted to return the kick-back sum of GH? 1,600.00, meant to guarantee the successful registration of a little-known political organization called The New Vision Party (NVP).

In other words, the two key EC operatives were arrested in what Americans call “a sting operation.” They were caught flagrante delicto, or in the very process of committing the criminal offence of bribery and corruption. Well, actually, the two gentlemen were caught in the process of trying to cover up their tracks, or pretend almost as if their criminal act and conduct of receiving bribe money never even occurred.

Now, what needs to be done is for the Greater-Accra Regional Police Command, actually the National Police Command, to thoroughly go back to the beginning of the appointment of Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, as Electoral Commissioner, and expeditiously investigate the roots of this palpably carcinogenic culture and climate of bribery and corruption which seem to have taken grips of the entire administrative fabric of the EC.

And while we are absolutely in no way making any direct claim of bribery and corruption against the overall boss of the EC, nevertheless, in principle and in consonance with the edict and/or law that brought his active engagement as Electoral Commissioner into effect, we unreservedly hold Dr. Afari-Gyan squarely responsible for the alleged criminal conduct of Messrs. Asumani and Kissi. And on the latter observation, we also promptly call for the immediate resignation of Dr. Afari-Gyan and his prompt replacement by a bi-partisan Parliamentary Select-Committee’s appointee.

And on the preceding count, also, it cannot be gainsaid that the tipping point of the present mess occurred when the Electoral Commissioner decided to let common sense and fair-play go to the dogs, as it were, by flagrantly strong-arming his way into the unorthodox creation of some 45 electoral districts, or constituencies, with barely three months before Election 2012, in an obvious and reckless bid to unduly favoring one of the two major political parties. The dear reader, of course, clearly appreciates what we are herein alluding to.

In other words, Dr. Afari-Gyan has virtually become a law unto himself and an insufferable tyrant who appears to no longer believe in the kind of constructive and effective democratic culture that all well-meaning Ghanaians are in the process of building as a salutary legacy to posterity.

We also take this opportunity to call on Parliament to promptly establish a Commission of Enquiry to investigate the recent high spate, or rash, of disqualification of all the political parties that had earlier on been certified by the Electoral Commission to contest Election 2012, including, most notably, the Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings-led National Democratic Party (NDP). For, Ghanaians deserve nothing short of a transparent democratic culture.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net. ###