The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has written to the Council of State, requesting that it reconsider its advice to the President on two of the three newly sworn-in members of Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC). The NDC presented evidence that Dr Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani had significant roots in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and cannot guarantee Ghana’s electoral administration body’s neutrality and impartiality.
“For any election to be accepted as credible, free, fair and transparent, every process must be accepted by key stakeholders, not least political parties such as ours, as credible and transparent,” the letter written by NDC’s National Chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Monday, April 17 said.
Also read: Fmr Minority Leader will visit Ghanasco to assess the situation
“To achieve this, principal actors, including members of the electoral management body, must not only be but must be perceived to be neutral and impartial to be able to carry all parties along.”
Mr Asiedu Nketia, on the other hand, made no apologies that,“it is demonstrably clear that the positions and roles of these [two] appointees within the NPP compromise their capacity to act with any form of neutrality”.The NDC stated that Dr Appiahene, a lecturer at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), has been a patron of the NPP student wing since 2017 at the same university and was even a member of the NPP’s 2020 National Research and Data Analysis Team.
The NDC stated that Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani’s immediate family is strongly embedded in the ruling party, aside from being an activist herself.
“It goes without saying that Hajia Salima evidently and perceptibly bears partisan colouration which clearly vitiates any hopes of neutrality and impartiality required of a member of the Elctioral Commisison.”
On Monday, March 20 at the Jubilee House, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo swore in three new members, the third being Reverend Akua Ofori Boateng, and warned that their decisions will be scrutinized like never before.
“That, however, should not scare you and, indeed, let no one try to cow you into submission,” the President urged.
“On the contrary, let this expectation of the Ghanaian people spur you onto great heights and above all the works of the will of the Ghanaian people is upheld.”
The letter was copied to the European Union Observer Team, the African Union Observer Team, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Electoral Commission, the US Ambassador to Ghana, the British High Commissioner, the Dutch Ambassador, and the German Ambassador, among others.
