RE: DR AFARI GYAN MUST GO

We have read with utter dismay the call by the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), a pro-NPP group, for the removal or resignation of Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission.

It seems that while a greater proportion of this nation is looking beyond the election petition and seeking resolution to some of the challenges we all faced during the last election, groups such as AFAG and many other NPP appendages and assigns are finding excuses to drag our nation back.

It beggars belief that the NPP group will accuse the EC Chairperson of ‘incompetence’ and ‘negligence’ when the Work of the Commission has been upheld by the highest court of the land. Even more intriguing is the AFAG argument that for admitting that there were challenges with the 2012 Elections (as with all elections the world over), Dr. Afari-Gyan has lost ‘any modicum of credibility’ and that his continuous stay in office while calling for reforms is ‘unconscionable’. Indeed, they would rather he lied under oath, something that was their stock-in-trade throughout the election petition.

What is more unconscionable than a so-called democratic party wanting to use the backdoor to impose a leader on this nation through a fraudulent petition and an amazingly clueless witnesses ? What is more unconscionable than the NPP seeking to annul the votes of millions of Ghanaians while it bays for the votes of the electorate ‘to count’? What is more unconscionable than the 8 months of a nation’s life wasted on a farcical, expensive, wobbly and bogus petition while the business of providing for the needs of our people is stalled?

Which conscionable party will, in a letter signed on Jan 25, 2011 , praise the Chairman of the EC for having ‘successfully led the Commission in improving and deepening the emerging democratic culture of our nation’ and turn around to call him incompetent because he did not declare them winners in an election they fairly and squarely lost?

Which party seriously seeking the mandate of Ghanaians will deploy illiterate agents to represent them at polling stations and turn around to blame others for their loss?

Rather than heap invectives on the Chairman of the Electoral Commission for their electoral misfortunes, AFAG and the NPP, if they have any modicum of conscience, should be blaming and removing the leadership of their party for gross incompetence and dereliction of duty.

Any party which makes the removal of the Chairman of the EC, whose work has been clearly endorsed by the highest Court of the land, a condition for pursuing electoral reforms cannot be a democratic party.

Not only does the call for the removal of the Chairman of the EC as a condition for getting involved in discussions on electoral reforms represent the fraudulent logic, double standards and bad faith of the NPP, it is simply mischievous and puerile and surely cannot come from a group interested in ‘improving and deepening the emerging democratic culture of our nation’.

We call on all well-meaning Ghanaians and civil society groups to heed the call for reforms and make substantial contributions to enhance the administration of elections in our beloved country.

TYDE Communications Team Email: youngdemocratsgh@gmail.com