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CDD-Ghana says Fomena By-election was
free and fair
Accra, Jan. 26, GNA – The Ghana Centre for Democratic
Development (CDD - Ghana) on Friday described Fomena
Constituency By-election as “freely and fairly contested”.
A statement signed by Mr John Larvie, Senior Programme
Officer of CDD, said: “The Electoral Commission (EC) put
enough personnel and materials on the ground to ensure a
hitch-free electoral process.”
CDD said the EC deployed many high-level officials into the
Constituency to help with the logistical arrangements and by
early dawn on Election Day all the 45 polling stations had
received the necessary supply of personnel and materials to
conduct the polls.
The statement said CDD observers saw party agents working
closely with polling teams in many polling stations.
However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not
deploy any agents to the Dadwen and Kyekyewere areas because
of a controversy over the code numbers given to them. They
had Obuasi Constituency code numbers.
It said both the EC and the two leading parties – NDC and
New Patriotic Party (NPP) - appeared to have been aware of
the anomaly since Election 2000 but allowed it to prevail.
The NDC this time around wanted the anomaly corrected, since
it was illegal, or else it would not endorse the results if
votes from those areas were included in the final results.
The CDD said the security for the elections was more than
adequate and to some extent intimidating.
The CDD recommended that political parties, the EC, National
Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and civic educators
should join hands to foster a peaceful atmosphere during
elections to minimise the need for such heavy security
presence.
It said the EC should not allow legal anomalies to prevail
just because the political parties appeared to accept them,
adding that this was necessary to protect the EC from having
its credibility unfairly doubted.
CDD said: “It may be helpful for the EC to publicize all
tacit and explicit arrangements agreed upon among the
political parties at all levels of the IPAC. This will help
to sustain IPAC as an effective electoral conflict
resolution mechanism.”
It observed that while the NDC had “every right to seek
redress for their complaints” it was “absolutely essential
that parties continue to dialogue with the EC to adjudicate
all complaints as a first option”.
GNA
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