Political Scientist Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo says no one should doubt the competence of not only the Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), Jean Adukwei Mensa, but also the Deputy Chair in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare.
He said he has worked with the two commissioners and can vouch for their competence.
For Madam Jean Mensa, Prof Gyampo says he worked with her for 14 years at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
“As for her competence, I cannot sit as part of a programme to allow anyone to doubt it,” Prof Gyampo stated on TV3‘s The Keypoints, also simulcast on 3FM, on Saturday, September 16.
“She is a very competent person,” he stressed, recounting how she led the IEA Ghana Political Parties Programme to bring enormous development to the country’s democracy.
The President of the University of Ghana’s University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG-UG) also revealed he was course mates with Dr Bossman Asare in their student days and later became colleagues at the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana.
He, however, said public appointments usually attract the criticisms the two appear to be receiving.
“It, however, appears that when you are given a political appointment, you must either reform the system or the system itself will reform you and that one I may want to believe that maybe ever since she went to chair the Commission, certain things that we were expecting would have happened are not happening in a way and manner that we all expect.”
This comes after the Commission’s decision to conduct the limited voter registration exercise at its district offices was resisted by some political parties, led by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), and civil society groups.
Not even an injunction secured against the commencement of the exercise could stop the EC from starting the exercise.
The registration began nationwide on Tuesday, September 12 and scheduled to end on Monday, October 2.
It will be done on weekends as well from 8:00am to 5:00pm each day.
The opponents want the exercise to be conducted at electoral areas.
Some have called on the youth to boycott the exercise due to the EC’s intransigence.
“Our position is clear, if it must be done, then it must be done right,” rallied the Coalition of National Youth Organisers (CNYO).
“If the Electoral Commission wants the people’s participation during this limited registration exercises, then they should take the exercise closer to them to make it easier for them to register.
“We are therefore calling on the Ghanaian Youths who are the future leaders of this country to boycott participating in this limited registration exercise, if the Electoral Commission decides not to consider the proposals made.”