Support EC to reform electoral system

Even before the pronouncement of the judgement on the electoral petition filed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and two others against the Electoral Commission’s (EC’s) declaration of President Mahama as the winner of the December 2012 presidential elections, it was clear that there would be the need for some reforms on how elections are conducted in the country.
Indeed, one of the Supreme Court judges is on record to have commented during the proceedings that elections in the country would not be the same after the hearing.

This appears to be a view held by many Ghanaians of all political persuasions.

A day after the petition had been disposed of, a former United Nations Secretary General, Busumuru Kofi Annan, issued a statement in which he called for reforms in our electoral system to address the flaws that were identified during the hearing of the petition.

The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and other concerned Ghanaians made similar calls.

Thus, it was not surprising that late last week the EC issued letters addressed to political parties and asking for proposals to reform the electoral system.

The EC has conducted all of Ghana’s elections since the return to constitutional rule in 1992 and in its efforts at enhancing transparency, it has spearheaded many reforms in the electoral system, with the full support of political parties.

Some of the major reforms that have taken place include the shift from the use of opaque ballot boxes in the 1992 elections to transparent ones in 1996 after it had been alleged in certain quarters that some of the opaque boxes used in the 1992 elections had been stuffed with ballot papers even before their arrival at the polling stations.

Again, following concerns raised by the parties and voters in general, the EC introduced, in the 1996 elections, a voting screen erected on top of a table in the open to protect the secrecy of the ballot and at the same time let others see the body of the voter as he or she marked his or her ballot to vote in the open.

An innovative mechanism for the EC to meet representatives of political parties and donors that support the electoral process to improve the trust, confidence and working relations between the commission and the parties led to the birth of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC).

Since 1994, when the IPAC came into being, it has played a very vital role in all elections. The most recent addition to the electoral process, the biometric voter identity system, no doubt, is one of such reforms that came into being as a result of the EC-IPAC collaboration.

The request by the EC for reform suggestions was initially welcomed by all the major political parties.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP), however, is not convinced that anything good will come out of the request by the EC for memoranda. The party has made a suggestion for wider consultations on the issue of reforms, which we think are necessary.

The NPP, the largest opposition party, has, over the years, contributed immensely to enrich the country’s democracy, while the EC has proved to be a dependable partner in our democratic dispensation and won worldwide acclaim. There is, therefore, no reason to doubt the genuineness of the call for suggestions for reforms.

The IPAC still exists as a body that can be used to ensure that suggestions forwarded to the EC are handled with all the seriousness they deserve.

The Daily Graphic is optimistic that all political parties will take the EC’s request seriously and make far reaching suggestions for reforms. It is only in this way that we will all be seen as having contributed to a rich political system that will continue be an example to the rest of Africa.

Daily Graphic/Ghana