A member of the Communications Team for Ghana’s ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Kumi, has defended the appointment of Dr Peter Appiahene to the Electoral Commission (EC) board.
Mr Kumi argued that party affiliation cannot be proven solely by possessing a party card or speaking on behalf of a party.
He cited the appointment of former EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, as an example of the NPP’s tolerance for perceived bias within the commission.
He alleged that Mrs Osei’s hesitation in declaring the results of the 2016 elections was evidence of her support for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“Charlotte Osei was more than Asiedu Nketia. The only difference is that Asiedu Nketia was sitting in an official position of the NDC.
“This is the Charlotte Osei that after all journalists collated election results when it was obvious that NPP has won massively, close to a million votes, she was having it difficult to come out to declare the election because of her own personal sentiments.
“Asiedu Nketia is an NDC member, sitting in an NDC office with an official position but he is not different from Charlotte Osei yet we worked under her. It is because the independence of the Commission is established and cannot be affected by an appointee,” he said on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers has called for the resignation of Dr Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, who were recently appointed to the EC by President Nana Akufo-Addo.
The NDC has accused the two appointees of being NPP loyalists, threatening the cross-party trust in the commission.