Flawed Elections Are Not Possible Under Current System – EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has said fears that the upcoming elections on December 7 could be flawed are untenable because the system it operates is airtight.
Deputy EC Commissioner in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, said because the electoral system the EC is following is firmly grounded in law, a flawed election is impossible.
“You can never have a flawed election the way our system operates. When you look at the current C.I. [Constitutional Instrument] we are operating with, it talks about a Regional Collation Officer who will be in charge of the results. The EC Commissioner is the Returning Officer for only the Presidential election.
“Then when you go to the constituencies, the Returning Officers there are in charge. So, the Chairperson, being the Returning Officer for the Presidential election, before the Chairperson will have access to the results all the constituencies, the regions have seen it,” he said.
Dr Asare made the comments on a current affairs programme on Joy News in response to the issues raised by the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) about the credibility of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary polls.
John Dramani Mahama had said at a press conference in September that events that characterised the compilation of the voters register in June points to polls that may not be credible.
Although the EC responded to the comments by the leader of the main opposition party at the time, on the current affairs programme on Joy News, dubbed The Probe, on Sunday, October 25, Dr Bossman Asare said the concept of a flawed election is alien to the systems adopted for the upcoming polls.
“When people talk about flawed elections, I think that they are only imagining something,” he said.
He said the C.I. that the EC is mandated to adopt emphasises transparency from the registration process to the voting process.
“So when you look at it, flawed elections cannot be part of us,” he said.