In a significant blow to the Electoral Commission (EC) and its leadership, barely months into the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe of Imani Africa has re-echoed his distrust and lack of confidence in the EC.
Mr. Franklin who is the founding President of Imani Africa, which is one of Ghana’s biggest and credible Think Tanks with a massive following across Africa didn’t mince words in expressing his misgivings.
“I have never trusted the EC and for good reasons, as I stated in that statement. First of all, you know what they did to my people of SALL on the eve of the last elections clandestinely and in a roguish manner just for electoral politics and as we speak, they’ve [the people of SALL] never had a representation and they [the EC] never did anything about it.”
Franklin Cudjoe
To clarify his statement and set the record straight, Mr. Cudjoe noted that, his doubts were not borne out of malice, however, the Electoral Commission flagrantly and consistently fails to treat Ghanaians fairly across the country. Mr. Cudjoe reiterated his previous experience saying “Look at the last elections, I mean the very thing they did, announcing figures multiple times.” the Commission is not being truthful to Ghanaians.
To buttress his point and ground his reservation with “facts”, Mr. Cudjoe lays the blame squarely with the EC saying “They messed us up and wasted that amount of money and now they are finding ways and means and trying to come back and say that they want to spend more money again. Again, the word is true; I don’t trust them one bit.”
“Missing” Devices
A few days ago, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) reported that about seven Biometric Verification Devices (BVD) of the EC cannot be accounted for. The minority leader Cassiel Ato Forson called for a Police probe into the case of the missing objects saying “The Electoral Commission Confirms that Seven Biometric Devices are indeed missing. I urge the CID and Ghana Police Service to immediately issue a statement providing details of the progress of their investigations thus far.”
In the ensuing banter, the EC denied the claim of the NDC that BVDs cannot be accounted for. However, EC disclosed that five of its laptops were “missing”. However, EC Deputy ChairpersonDr. Bossaman assured Ghanaians of his outfit’s preparedness for a credible, free, and fair election. He further reiterated that the EC has a system that is safe and secure.
“We want to assure each and everyone and the good people of our country that our systems are secured and very robust. We are going to organize another transparent, credible election which will go down as one of the best. Anyone who thinks that there’s a problem, we are convinced and certain that all our systems are secured and we are ready for the activities of the year.”
Dr.Bossman Asare
Surging doubts
That said, Mr. Cudjoe questions the neutrality of the EC’s leadership. He accused the EC’s leadership bias and intentionality in all their “wrongdoings”. “Some people think that it is actually incompetence. I see it as a grand plan,” he said, adding, “When people want to destroy something and you think that they are incompetent at it, it is actually a ruse, so you assume that they don’t know what they are doing but they are actually clever at doing it.”
Similar to Mr. Cudjoe’s viewpoint, the minority leader in an interview on the matter seemed to be referring to the ruling party as the would-be beneficiary of the “sinister plan”. “I am concerned and worried because those devices in the hands of an unknown person can compromise the future elections that we will have. Who knows whether this is in the hands of a political party? And who knows what that political party is doing with it? I am disturbed.”
Calls for Transparent Probe
The calls for a transparent probe into the matter are growing. As they become vocal and vitriolic if care isn’t taken, the Electoral Commission will find it difficult to convince Ghanaians about the credibility of the impending election. Should that happen, the EC would have itself to blame and not its growing number
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