The Electoral Commission of Ghana has registered its profound displeasure with what they describe as a continuous and deliberate attempt by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to malign and impugn the integrity of the commission.
According to the EC, it has been observed that the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi has deliberately resorted to lies, and unfounded and baseless allegations to bring the integrity of the commission into disrepute in the eyes of Ghanaians.
This reaction from the EC follows a refresh allegation from Sammy Gyamfi and the NDC that the commission has connived with the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to field a non-constituent to contest in the upcoming Assin North By-Election which is an affront to the laws governing elections in the country.
Following the allegation, the EC in a statement has debunked the said claims quoting portions of the 1992 Constitution to buttress their argument.
“The National Communication Officer of the NDC in his response makes the claim that the EC only relied on the 1992 Constitution to make the case that a person need not be a registered voter in the Constituency he/she intends to stand for election. He asserts that the EC should have also relied on the CI 127 and in particular the Nomination Form contained in CI 127 before arriving at the conclusion that a person need not be a registered voter in the same Constituency he/she intends to contest.
To buttress his point, he states that the phrase ‘of the same Constituency’, on the Parliamentary Nomination Form, implies that a candidate for parliamentary election must be a registered voter in the same Constituency he/she intends to contest and that the phrase ‘of the same Constituency’ on the Nomination Form should override the Constitution. This argument is flawed.
For the benefit of the public, the Nomination Form states as follows: “We the undersigned registered voters in ………………… Constituency do hereby nominate…………. ‘of the same Constituency’ to stand for election as a Member of Parliament, and we hereby certify that to the best of our knowledge he/she is qualified to be elected as such.”
Clearly, as stated above, the Nomination Form only requires those nominating a candidate for a parliamentary election in a Constituency to be registered voters in the same Constituency, and not the candidate who is being nominated to contest. The candidate is only required to hail from or reside in the Constituency to qualify to contest in that Constituency. If one should interpret what is stated on the Parliamentary Nomination Form to imply that the candidate must also be a registered voter in the same Constituency, that would be absurd, unreasonable, illogical, and unconstitutional to borrow some of the words of Sammy Gyamfi,” parts of the statement released by the Public Affairs Department of the EC explained.
The Electoral Commission has therefore asked Ghanaians to ignore the ‘baseless and unfounded allegations of Sammy Gyamfi and the NDC.
“Over the years Sammy Gyamfi and his party have put out false claims aimed at maligning the integrity of the EC. This was evident in their petition to the Supreme Court after the 2020 Elections alleging that they had won the Elections. It is well known that they could not provide evidence in Court to support their allegations. This current allegation is no different. It is baseless and unfounded and a figment of the imagination of the National Communication Officer. We call on all well meaning Ghanaians to ignore it.
“Ghana’s democracy has come of age and we call on Sammy Gyamfi to exercise maturity, decorum and truth in his discussions on the EC. We urge him to go out and campaign and leave the EC alone,” it stated.
