Not a few political parties, and for that matter stakeholders in the political space, are amused by the draft Constitutional Instrument (CI) before parliament for the registration of voters and the 2024 general elections.
The draft CI is titled “Public Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulation, 2021). The title of the CI, is enough to justify the anxieties of those who are calling on the Electoral Commission, to hasten slowly.
Jean Adukwei Mensa, the Electoral Commissioner, since her appointment by president Akufo-Addo, has taken decisions that seek to deepen mistrust between the EC and political parties, especially the opposition parties.
Her posture, also sends the wrong signal to other stakeholders, except the New Patriotic Party. Some people are of the opinion that, she has not learnt any valuable lessons after the 2020 elections, because the Justices of the Supreme Court, who presided over the election petition filed by former president John Dramani Mahama and the NDC, refused their application to cross-examine her on the grounds of technicalities, which hardly serves the course of justice. .
This newspaper is not by any means suggesting that the courts cannot or should not adjudicate on election matters. On the contrary, the country’s extant laws envisioned that disputes could arise in the electoral process where only the courts would be in a position to resolve them and still deliver justice to all concerned.
Our concern, however, was the decision of the Apex court not to allow Jean Mensa be cross-examined by her accusers, that judgment is what has embolden her, to keep on the tangent that is further eroding the trust in her administration.
Jean Mensa, ought to see the political parties as partners in deepening our democracy and not as opponent to be antagonized.
We, as a newspaper, are compelled by the desire for good governance and an enhanced democratic process to urge the Electoral Commission to turn deaf ears to the call for broader stakeholder consultation on the Constitutional Instrument.
