The Director of Electoral Affairs for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign team, Peter Mac Manu says that it is time to dispel the perception of the Electoral Commission (EC) favouring parties in power.
According to him, the EC is a neutral body with the mandate of organising and overseeing elections in the country.
Speaking on JoyNews’ the Pulse on February 20, he noted that over the years, political parties have been accusing the EC of supporting one party or the other because certain actions and decisions of the body appear to benefit that party.
Mac Manu therefore believes there is a lot of work needed to break that perception. “I think that it is about time that we broke the suspicion that lingers either in opposition or in government about the activities of the Electoral Commission.”
He was responding to the age-old problem where both the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party, each take turns accusing the EC of being biased depending on which party is in opposition.
Mr Mac Manu advised the electoral body to dispel this perception by being transparent about electoral processes.
“For me, how we do it is for the EC to be as transparent and open as possible and to listen to stakeholders as they have done recently in respect of the date and the ink,” he said, referencing the EC’s U-turn to now accept that indelible ink would be used to mark voters once they go through the process, as against its initial insistence on eliminating the ink, as well as agreeing to implement the date-change for voting from the 2028 elections, instead of this year, as canvassed by the NDC.
When asked why after 30 years of democracy, the EC still had not been able to convince people of its neutrality, Mr Manu said three decades are not enough and that it takes much longer to build such a reputation.
“So 30 years is long for you eh? Some people have practised democracy for over 200 years and they still continue to make changes and amend because we don’t live in a static society. So every now and then the dynamics of society makes it imperative that there are bound to be changes as we move on. But 30 years is not enough,” he said.
He argued that democracy is a journey, “So 30 years of that journey is nothing.”
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