Call back Afari Gyan to Co-Chair EC- Govt told

Member of the Movement for Change, Mr Solomon Owusu has called for the re-appointment of the former Electoral Commissioner (EC), Dr Afari Gyan to co-chair the commission in conducting this year’s election.

That he said will bring some credibility to the commission and restore public trust and confidence in it and its activities as far as the 2024 election is concerned.

Mr Owusu made the call on Big Issue on TV3 NewDay on Tuesday, September 3 and monitored by GhanaPlus.com.

According to him, Ghana stands to lose if things are not done right indicating that Dr Afari Gyan’s experience and quality will be of good intervention for the commission at this point in time.

“I have said in time past that there is much at stake that if Ghana will listen this is the time to call Afari Gyan back to be a co-chair of this election”.

 “He has to be a co-chairperson of the Electoral Commission so that it will bring back some level of credibility to the election. As we speak, if you ask me, I don’t trust Electoral Commission. There is absolutely no trust for the Electoral Commission,” Mr Owusu insisted.

Dr Afari Gyan

Dr Afari Gyan chaired Ghana’s EC from 1993 to 2015 and conducted four times in a roll, the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Dr Afari Gyan also conducted the 1992 election in the capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the Interim National Electoral Commission which saw the election of the Provisional National Defence Council’s (PNDC) Jerry John Rawlings and return the country to civilian rule.

“He has to be brought back, co-chair. He has to be involve in this election. We risk as a country losing a lot. The National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons is telling us that as at 2014, there were 1.1miilion, 1.4million illegal weapons in the hands of people they can’t trace. People are looking for opportunity to strike and one way or reasons they can strike is through elections and if you have someone who has done it before that did not result in any conflict why won’t you bring the person to come and aide in this election,” he said.

EC admit errors in Ajumako/Enyan Essiam Constituency voters’ register

Mr Owusu was reacting to the EC’s admission that there were mistakes in the provisional voters’ register of the Ajumako/Enyan Essiam Constituency following accusations by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that some 3,017 non-resident have been illegally and secretly  transferred into the constituency’s register.

The Deputy Commissioner of Electoral Commission in charge of Corporate Affairs, Dr Eric Bossman Asare at a press conference on September 2, said the errors have been corrected.

“In the preparations towards the 2024 Exhibition Exercise, the Absent Voters List and the Transferred Voters List inadvertently included all transfers that had been done since 2020 when this Register was first prepared. This has resulted in a higher-than-expected number of Absent and Transferred Voters” he said.

He assured that the final voters register for the 2024 elections will be credible.

“This understandably may have caused some anxiety to our stakeholders, as exemplified by the press conference addressed by the NDC in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency of the Central Region.”

” We wish to restate that the Provisional Voters Register is not the Final Voters Register. The central objective of the Exhibition Exercise is to correct any anomalies and issues with the Provisional Register before the Final Register is produced. This has been the practice since 1992.

” The Commission wishes to assure the Public that, after the Exhibition Exercise, the Final Voters Register that will be produced will be robust and credible,”   Dr Asare assured.

“The Commission has corrected this anomaly and will share with all the Political Parties the corrected Absent and Transferred Voters List for each Polling Station that contains only those applicants who successfully applied for transfers or special voting for the 2024 General Elections,” Dr. Asare noted on September 2 during a press conference.

But the explanations and the corrections not withstanding, Mr Owusu said the admission renders the entire register not credible.

Source: GhanaPlus.com