Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the previous Chairman of the Electoral Commission, has averred that discussions on electoral reforms should not be the protect of political events and the Electoral Commission (EC) however they require sober reflection in a spirit of give and take, not partisan posturing.
“The have to specify a path to parliamentary approval nevertheless, the president appoints the members of the Commission on the recommendation of the Council of State and there are other ways of composing the membership of election our bodies world wide and a number of other nations require parliamentary approval of the members.
“Currently, the president appoints the members of EC on advice of the Council of State although several countries require parliamentary approval for selecting members for an electoral body, the processes are not straitjacket for all,” Dr Afari-Gyan defined.
His remark was in response to the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) proposal for some electoral reforms, which included provision for prior parliamentary approval for the appointment of members of EC have to be like that of Justices of the Supreme Court which entails prior parliamentary approval.
Justifying their motive, the NDC acknowledged that the present mode of appointment of members of the EC seemed to be partisan and didn’t contain Parliament and contended it didn’t permit the Commission to be as impartial, impartial, clear, free, truthful, agency and credible because it should be.
With regard to the proposal, Dr Afari-Gyan indicated that “it is important to specify route to parliamentary approval”, and quizzed “who will make recommendation to parliament? What role, if any, will Council of State play? Whether parliamentary approval will make it clearer to realise the proposal constitutes an improvement on current practice”.
He reiterated the essence of debate was to trade views till factions might attain consensus or disagreed on cheap grounds since electoral processes belonged to the citizenry and was correct for people, teams, and election-related civil society organisations to contribute. –ghanaweb.com
