National Election Steering Committee, platform for information sharing — EC

The Electoral Commission (EC) has explained that the recently inaugurated National Election Steering Committee (NESC) is merely a platform for information sharing and not for electoral operational purposes.

“The NESC is not an operational decision-making body; it’s merely a platform to share information. It cannot decide, for instance, on the date of elections, the movement of ballot boxes and any other operations of the elections,” it pointed out.

The Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, made this known in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic in her office in Accra Monday.

Background

The EC has come under heavy criticism over the composition of the 18-member committee meant to help the election management body conduct smooth elections in November.

The NESC is made up of representatives from the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), the Ghana Prisons Service, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the National Media Commission (NMC), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), the National Peace Council(NPC), the Ghana Education Service (GES), the National Service Secretariat (NSS), the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI), an umbrella body of 35 civil society organisations (CSOs), the National Security, among other bodies.

The controversy surrounding the setting up of the committee by the EC appears not to be ending.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA), a political pressure group, have accused the EC of bias for empanelling members the two bodies believed were affiliated to the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the NESC.

Whereas members of the public were made to believe that the EC had suspended the work of the committee after an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting with the EC in Accra last  Friday, the EC, in a statement signed by its acting Director of Public Affairs, Mr Christian Owusu Parry, described as erroneous reports that the committee had been suspended and urged the public to disregard those reports.

Controversy

The setting up of the committee generated controversy following the revelation that one of the members, Dr Karl Mark Arhin, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Service Scheme, is a member of the NDC.

The committee is expected to coordinate the activities of the various stakeholders within the electoral process to ensure successful elections, but, according to IPAC, the political parties did not know the objective of the NESC, apart from the fact that they were not consulted before it was set up.

IPAC not on committee

On why the IPAC was not informed about the setting up of the committee, Mrs Osei explained thus:  “The IPAC is not an oversight body to the EC but an important stakeholder forum that helps or assists the EC to manage elections in the country effectively.”

She said Section 7 of Act 451 gave the EC the authority to set up “such committees as it considers necessary for the discharge of its functions”.

The act further states: “A committee appointed by the commission may include non-members of the commission but shall be chaired by a member of the commission.”

All inclusive

Mrs Osei recalled that over the years, some institutions that had roles to play in elections and had regular interactions with the EC had complained officially about their frustration about how the EC managed information on elections.

“We as a commission have never coordinated information on elections properly and we need to have a common platform to coordinate and manage information on the elections properly,” she stated, declaring that “by the setting up of the NESC, the EC is only trying to improve the electoral system to make it more inclusive and  transparent”.

“What have we done wrong? Is it that we should not work to improve the situation and never correct the problems? I do not understand.

“If we should continue along this path of mischief, malice and mistrust, it will be a recipe for social instability and chaos,” she added.

She said if the EC had done something untoward and infringed on its constitutional obligations, “we must be the first to be criticised, but all the criticisms must be on merit and founded”.

Caution

In Mrs Osei’s view, the way some political parties were taking entrenched positions on national matters was not healthy for the nation and definitely not the way to go.

“Are we going to politicise everything in this country? Why do we do this to the nation?” she asked.

Surprise

She said the EC wrote to the National Peace Council on November 11, 2015 on the formation of the committee and the commission did actually receive an acknowledgement from the council on November 23, 2015 nominating Mr Francis Azumiah, its Executive Secretary, to serve on the committee.

She expressed surprise that the NPC claimed it did not receive any request from the EC on the setting up of the NESC.

“If the NPC behaves this way, it will create credibility problems for all of us,” Mrs Osei argued, saying: “The EC did not appoint the nominees on the committee.”

National interest

According to the EC Chair, as stakeholders in election management, “we must all think of the national interest as against our parochial interest. Anything outside the national interest is a recipe for chaos. At what point do we reckon its effect and impact on the well-being of the nation?”