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Are "coming events"
beginning to cast their shadows already?
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Friday, December 18, 2015
Folks, the Chair of the Electoral Commission (Charlotte Osei)
is reported to be "mad" (simply meaning very angry) when she
appeared before Parliament because the budget for the EC has
been drastically slashed by the Ministry of Finance.
As reported, she had told Parliament that she proposed a
budgetary allocation of 1.2 billion Cedis for Election 2016,
but the Ministry slashed it down to 800 million Cedis,
leaving a shortfall of 400 million. She is unhappy that this
reduced budget can't help the EC do its work as demanded.
Meantime, as a result of the reduction, polling stations
will be reduced from 30,000 to 29,000. Parliament is yet to
approve the budgetary allocation (See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/EC-Boss-goes-mad-in-Parliament-over-budget-cut-401680).
MY COMMENTS
The action by the Ministry of Finance is problematic,
especially when placed against the assurances given by
President Mahama that the EC will be resourced to do its
work to the full. What caused the Ministry to cut the budget
by a third? The usual excuse of pressure on the economy? Why
the EC particularly, given the ongoing agitations to have it
function effectively to ensure that nothing untoward comes
from its quarters to taint Election 2016 and provoke
political instability?
We recall the aggressive stance of the NPP and some of the
mushroom parties that blamed the EC for the outcome of
Election 2012 and the stentorian demands for the EC to do
things so it can regain their trust and rebuild its image.
All the noise being made point to one conclusion: that
anything done to create the impression that the government
isn't supporting the EC in terms of resources will embolden
the NPP to rock the boat all the more.
What is it that the government cannot do to resource the EC
adequately for it to perform its duties and shame its bitter
critics? I urge the government to reconsider the Ministry of
Finance's action and to mobilize funds and other material
resources for the EC. Even if it means going for loans, it
should do so. A well-resourced EC should be one step toward
tackling the electioneering challenges.
It is interesting to note that the EC is thinking of
innovations, for instance, recruiting Ghanaian lecturers as
polling station agents or whatever (probably, acting on a
suggestion by the Nigerian academic, Prof. Jega). Even
though I have serious doubts about what exactly using those
lecturers will bring to the table to make the outcome of the
elections more credible and acceptable than previous ones,
once the EC thinks it can use such academics, it should be
supported, not frustrated.
I wonder, though, how someone like Dr. Richard Amoako-Baah
of the KNUST (a known political gasbag singing the NPP's
song cacophonously all this time) will add anything new to
the process. Assuming that he serves as a polling station
attendant or whatever, he will be more of a liability than
the asset that the process will be looking for. And there
are others supporting the NDC or the mushroom parties who
will be eyed with suspicion.
But the truth is that the EC must be supported all-out to do
its work. Then, when the elections are held and the results
are announced, the sore losers will have no cause to reject
anything or dash to the dark chambers of the Judiciary for
redress at the expense of the country and ordinary citizens.
The government must shoulder the responsibilities; it must
do all in its power to resource the EC so it doesn't create
any doubt in the minds of its opponents that it is crippling
the EC because it doesn't want it to do what it has to do
for clean, free, and fair elections. The basis of the
opponents' allegations on rigging should be eroded as the EC
stands tall to do whatever it can to improve the electoral
process for Election 2016. Then, there will be no
justification for any rejection of the outcome of the polls
or any recourse to election petition or hooliganism. I hope
someone is listening.
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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