Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has cautioned members of the Council of State to re-consider their veracity, with regard to the President’s recent appointments to the Electoral Commission’s Board.

Sammy Gyamfi opined that the letter written by the NDC asking for reassessment of the appointments of Dr. Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani to the board of the EC, should be addressed by the Council.

The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in an interview, claimed that all the party wants is to have the Council advise the President to rescind his decision on the appointment of Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani and Dr. Peter Appiahene.

“What we are asking the Council of State to do is to purge themselves of this constitutional sacrilege and that is what we intend to achieve with the letter we sent to the Council.
“The Council of State is a very important institution in our democratic system. So therefore, in their advice to the president, they should be careful to consider the national interest. We believe in their competence and patriotism, and we will be very happy if, in light of the new evidence we have presented, they advise the president to reverse his decision.”
Sammy Gyamfi

The NDC Mouthpiece added that the little confidence left in the Electoral Commission, will be eroded, should the two members remain on the Board.

“This is hard evidence relative to the party inclination of these two people. They are publicly known NPP hardliners, and they are unredeemably partisan, that if we accept them as members of the Electoral Commission, the whole institution will lose the little integrity and credibility it has left. Don’t forget that public confidence in the Electoral Commission is at an all-time low of 10 percent and what we need to do now is what will boost public confidence in government institutions.”
Sammy Gyamfi

The NDC on Wednesday, April 19 wrote to the Council of State to reconsider the appointment of Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani and Dr. Peter Appiahene.

NDC Urges The Council Of State To Reconsider New EC Board Members

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) wrote to the Council of State to reassess the appointments of Dr. Peter Appiahene and Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani to the board of the Electoral Commission.

Moreover, some sections of the public and civil society organizations, such as the Coalition for Democratic Election Observers (CODEO), criticized the appointments and called on the president to annul the appointments based on their affiliation with the ruling NPP.

“Dr. Peter Appiahene is not only a card-bearing member of the ruling New Patriotic Party but a recognized leading figure within the ranks of the Party. He has been a patron of the tertiary wing of the New Patriotic Party, TESCON, at the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani, since 2017. He is a known communicator of the New Patriotic Party in the Bono Region, on both radio and television.
“Prior to his appointment to the Electoral Commission, Dr. Appiahene had played various leading roles for the New Patriotic Party in the Bono Region. Indeed, he touts himself in his political profile and personal credentials as a strong NPP man with a lot of experience in election issues in Ghana.”
NDC

The NDC spoke about Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani on her appointment as well, by proclaiming that its “background search revealed that she has well-known New Patriotic Party leanings. Aside from the fact that Hajia Salima is herself an activist of the ruling New Patriotic Party, she is married to one Sheikh T.B Damba, a former Second National Vice Chairman of the NPP, and Ghana’s immediate-past ambassador to Saudi Arabia, from 2017 to 2021.”

“We are aware that once Dr. Appiahene and Hajia Salima have been sworn in as members of the Commission, the Council of State has become functus officio in the process of their appointments.
“We are nevertheless of the view that against the background of the evidence that we have presented, it is possible for the Council to re-consider its advice to the President, in order to erase any perception that the Council has been complicit in the appointment of these patently partisan individuals to the Electoral Commission and to safeguard the integrity of the Council, as far as its role in the structure of our governance architecture, is concerned.”
NDC