Former Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has bemoaned the actions of the EC as failing to uphold the constitutional rights of ordinary Ghanaians to vote, citing the EC’s insistence on using only the Ghana Card for registration.
Dr. Afari-Gyan was the keynote speaker at the Constitution Day Public Lecture event organised by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Law School and the One Ghana Movement on Monday, January 8, 2024.
The political scientist and election administrator noted that political parties always took certain positions favouring them. It is up to the EC to defend the rights of the voter.
“Political parties can take a stand which constitutes an obstacle to the realisation of the electoral rights of the people,” he said, adding, “When that happens, it is the duty of the electoral commission to uphold and protect the rights and interests of the people.”
The longest-serving Chairperson of the EC (1993–2015), in buttressing his point, cited an instance during his tenure when political parties proposed the “No card, no vote” idea with which his administration disagreed.
“The political parties once wanted the Electoral Commission to make it mandatory for people to produce their voter ID cards on Election Day before they are allowed to vote. The Electoral Commission said no to this ‘No card, no vote’ campaign.
According to Dr. Afari-Gyan, the Electoral Commission at the time explained to the political parties, “It is the Constitution and not the card that creates the right to vote.”
“The card makes it easy to identify you as a registered voter. So on Election Day, if your name is on the register, which is a legal requirement, but you do not have the card with you, then the onus lies on you to identify yourself to the satisfaction of the persons conducting the election,” he stated.
The political parties subsequently agreed with the Commission’s position.
According to Dr. Afari-Gyan, current happenings at the EC seem to suggest political parties are the ones defending the interests of the people.
“In contrast, the current Electoral Commission’s drive to make the Ghana Card the only document for voter registration when that card is not easily accessible to all Ghanaians and its refusal to consider the request by political parties to do the 2023 limited voter registration at the electoral area level closer to the people than at the district level.”
A situation, he said, “would seem to indicate that the political parties are now defending the interests of the voters.”
Dr. Afari-Gyan criticised politicians for vote-buying
Meanwhile, the renowned election administrator who supervised Ghana’s 1992 multi-party elections rebuked politicians for broad-day vote-buying, describing it as “a shameful spectacle” of the country’s democratic credentials.
Former EC Chairman Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan urges NDC to return to Inter Party Advisory Committee
“In days gone by, whatever vote buying or selling there was took place in secrecy. It is not so these days. What we have now looks like an open market where candidates can freely buy votes and citizens can freely sell their votes in broad daylight while we all look on seemingly unconcerned. It is a shameful spectacle because vote buying and vote selling are unlawful.”
Dr. Afari-Gyan urged politicians to desist from such acts as they are illegal and undermine the idea that voters elect their leaders out of free will, indicating that “all is not well with our democracy.”