Former President John Mahama has expressed his dissatisfaction with the proposed change in the date for the presidential and parliamentary elections by the Electoral Commission (EC).
According to him, the attempt by the EC to introduce major reforms just months before the 2024 general election could undermine people’s confidence in the electoral process.
Mr Mahama’s remarks come after the EC proposed a change in the election date from December 7 to November 7 and introduced a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) for the election.
The Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare stated that this new timeline would allow the election management body to easily mobilise for a runoff in case the polls end this year with no clear winner in the first round of elections.
He clarified that the EC is not the final determinant, but the implementation has to go through the Attorney General, to the parliamentary system before it can be approved.
However, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer for the 2024 general elections stressed that the proposals could result in chaos if implementation fails to yield the desired results.
He said this while addressing the leadership of the Christian community in Koforidua as part of the “Building Ghana Tour” on Wednesday, January 31.
Mr Mahama emphasised that elections are very emotive events, and urged the country to handle such changes carefully to avoid chaos or disagreements.
What the EC does sometimes does not sound right. Since we voted in 2020 and now it’s left with just 9 months to this year’s general elections, you are now coming up with major changes, saying they will not introduce indelible ink and all that.
If you do that, you don’t build the confidence of the people in the electoral process. They are also saying they want to shift the election date and bring a new C.I. to change the old C.I. What we’re saying is that, why wait till now, you don’t spring surprises on people like that, the former President stressed.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission says it is yet to arrive at a final decision as to whether or not indelible inks will be used in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
The commission in the last elections for local assembly members cancelled the age-old practice of voters dipping their fingers in indelible ink as a security feature to prove that one has already cast their ballot.
Responding to a question on whether indelible ink will be used in the presidential and parliamentary primaries, the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Corporate Services stated that a final decision is yet to be taken on the matter.
Source: myjoyonline.com / Prince Adu-Owusu
