• He said the EC chair get irritated when the NDC is happy
• He noted that moving the counting to 3pm will not help in any way
Peter Otokunor, the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated that the Electoral Commission Chair Jean Mensa gets irritated when she sees his party, the NDC smiling because they are not treated fairly in previous meetings.
According to him, the party boycotted the two-day forum organized by the Electoral Commission (EC) because they have issues with the credibility of the Chair and the two deputies who conducted the 2020 elections.
“First of all, we are questioning the credibility of the current Electoral Commission led by Jean Mensa and the two deputies. We are questioning their credibility. We believe that they do not hold that independence as is expected of an electoral management body. “The second point is that current IPAC as it stands with its current disposition and the disposition of the leaders of IPAC which is the EC chairs persons and the deputies is something that we must look at and find a proper position of IPAC, come up with clear procedures of handling meetings when we smile at IPAC the EC chair will be angry and they can talk to you anyhow, you can’t smile at IPAC, you can’t make your point at IPAC when you descend on a position of the electoral commission. That must stop now,” he told Accra based Joy FM by monitored by GhanaWeb.
According to Mr Otokunor, there are other pressing reforms that the EC must embark on, to regain the trust of the people or else the next elections could be tougher than before.
Meanwhile, Mrs Mensa has proposed for the stipulated time for the closure of polls to be moved forward from 5 pm to 3 pm in future elections. She said the proposal when implemented would ensure adequate time provided for the counting, and collation of ballot papers.
“We propose closing the polls at 3 pm rather than 5 pm. In 2019, we announced our decision to close the polls at 3 pm rather than 5 pm, in the 2020 Elections. Nonetheless, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the stringent, and necessarily time-consuming safety protocols we instituted at our polling stations, we were compelled to put this proposal on hold.”
“Over the past months, however, this proposal has re-surfaced from various sections of the public, and indeed, our own experience from the 2020 Elections has revealed that it is a workable proposal, as, by 1 pm, most polling stations were empty, suggesting that this is a workable proposal. Therefore, this is a reform we intend to put forward,” Mensa said at a two-day retreat for political parties and other stakeholders, an event which was boycotted by the NDC.
Peter Otokunor, Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress