From Eric’s Diary: Electoral Commission and the elephant in the room

Our ears are for hearing and eyes for seeing. But my Ga elders have a saying that makes one get the obviously wrong impression that the ears can perform the function of the eye, depending on the occasion.

This is how they say it, “kɛ awie ni onuuu lɛ, onaa kɛ ohiŋmɛi.”- to wit if you are spoken to and you do not hear, you see it with your eyes.

This proverb is usually used on persons who are stubborn, obstinate, adamant, intransigent. In the worst-case scenarios, it is used for persons who have no scruples- to not care that something you do is morally wrong or likely to have bad results.

Unfortunately, the Management members of the Electoral Commission are exhibiting attitudes that make me wonder if there is no ‘elder’ among members of the Commission, who would sound this note of caution to those who are behaving as though the electoral body is their Bonafide property, hence can do whatever they please with it.

I get more worried because there are three Ga-Dangbes involved- Adukwei, Kabukie and Tettey.

My regard for stakeholders

As a communication professional, I have come to understand the indispensableness of stakeholders in every human endeavour. Indeed, my one semester study of Project Management at the prestigious GIMPA, taught me that no project succeeds without stakeholder alignment.

It is for this reason that experts have developed matrixes for the effective analysis of stakeholders for appropriate engagement in order to yield the desired outcomes.

For the avoidance of doubt, “A stakeholder is a person, group or organization with a vested interest, or stake, in the decision-making and activities of a business, organization or project.”- TechTaget.com. My favourite definition is the one that says a stakeholder is the individual or group that will be impacted or can impact any endeavour by an organization.

Somehow, the managers of the Electoral Commission, one of whom taught me at the premier university, the University of Ghana, and my namesake, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, are not exhibiting any signs of appreciation of the inherent interests that their numerous stakeholders have in the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

All they care about is their law- “The Commission was established by the Electoral Commission Act (Act 451) of 1993. It was set up purposely to manage the conduct of all public elections and Referenda, to handle all matters directly related to the conduct of elections in the country.”

Two words stand out clearly in the above-quoted text – Manage and Handle. Manage means “to skillfully handle something” and Handle means “to manage a situation.” It is clear to me, from what is happening that they are flouting the regulation from which they derive the pompous attitude towards stakeholders.

Indeed, they are not being skillful at all. I have already given Mrs Jean Adukwei Mensa a piece of my mind in the article titled, “2024 Elections- Auntie Adukwɛi, please…”

https://editors.3news.com/opinion/from-erics-diary-2024-elections-auntie-adukw%C9%9Bi-please/

Here are excerpts:

“Unfortunately, there is an Adukwɛi in our national governance structure whose public outings raise negative sentiments in me. Well, by public outings, I am not referring to her beauty and fashion sense. That is a given- gorgeous looking fair lady. That’s enough clue to let you know that I am talking about Mrs Jean Adukwɛi Mensa, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.

My concern is about the performance of her duties as a public servant with the huge responsibility to ensure free, fair and transparent elections. Not too long ago, she went to Parliament with a Constitutional Instrument (C.I) that sought to make the Ghana Card the only identity document admissible for registration as a voter.

This is against the background that evidence exists beyond reasonable doubt that a significant number of eligible voters do not have the Ghana Card for very obvious reasons- National Identification Authority has not been able to ensure that all qualified persons have the card.

Read what a key stakeholder like the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said before the recently held Local Government Election, “So many people don’t have the Ghana card and some of the people who have registered to get the card have not been given the card. And given the pendency of the District Level Election (DLE), to have tied registration to the Ghana Card knowing that some of the eligible Ghanaians have not been registered to get the Ghana cards, was going to be problematic.”

Thankfully, that is water under the bridge.

Dr Eric Bossman Asare

I see the extra effort my namesake makes, when he grants media interviews, to be circumspect in his pronouncements. Yet his body language of “who are you to ask me this question?” gives him away as someone who feels so good about his position and does not want to answer any probing questions.

He may not be the one who single-handedly took the decision not to answer questions after EC’s officers have held a press conference, but the way he makes that announcement, gives vent to the perception of an above reproach posturing. Such dismissive posturing when you have admitted to inadvertent errors during a press conference is to say the least, unbecoming of a public servant.

“In the preparations towards the 2024 Exhibition Exercise, the Absent Voters List and the Transferred Voters List inadvertently included all transfers that had been done since 2020 when this Register was first prepared. This has resulted in a higher-than-expected number of Absent and Transferred Voters,” he confessed.

Dr Bossman Asare continued, “This understandably may have caused some anxiety to our stakeholders, as exemplified by the press conference addressed by the NDC in the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Constituency of the Central Region.”

Why would you not offer journalists the opportunity to ask you questions on such an avoidable error? If for nothing at all, your explanation will clear any doubts in the minds of your stakeholders in relation to the matter. But…

Mr Samuel Tettey

Based on the science of observation, I can say without fear of contradiction that some persons with quiet disposition do so because they appreciate the usually negative impact of their speeches.

One of them is Samuel Tettey, the Electoral Commission’s Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations. He hardly speaks. Two weeks ago, when the lot fell on him to address a press conference in reaction to a threat by the National Democratic Congress to demonstrate against them for refusing to grant their request for a forensic audit of the voters’ register to be used on December 7, due to the EC’s self-confessed errors, he spoke.

Hear him, “In 2016 when the voters’ register had plants and animals as voters, why didn’t the NDC complain?” Like seriously? Such self-indicting statement from such a highly placed public servant? And he still keeps his job? Well, I can only blame the one who appointed him to that high office.

The ‘Enough is Enough’ demo and Mahama’s absence

So it came to pass that the NDC put paid to their threat to protest. Thousands of the members demonstrated in the regional capitals and presented the petition to representatives of the Electoral Commission. In Accra, the petition was presented to Parliament as well as the Electoral Commission.

Here is a summary of the party’s demands- “a bi-partisan probe into the conduct of the Electoral Commission (EC), leading to a forensic audit of the voters’ register, immediate publication of the forensic findings.

Re-exhibition of the voters’ register for 5 days after the audit, correction of unauthorized vote transfers, adoption of a definitive timetable for electoral activities, an emergency meeting of stakeholders, including ECOWAS and the African Union (AU), among others, implementation of accountability and integrity measures to prevent future manipulation of the voter register.” Fair demands if you ask me.

Somehow, conspicuously missing from the protesters was former President Mahama and his running mate, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang. I could not help asking myself, why the person who is the ultimate beneficiary of any positive outcome of the demonstration, will absent himself from this event.

Some have offered security reasons, which I am not buying. Worse still, others have said he was on the campaign trail. I ask, so he could not join those who demonstrated in the region where he was campaigning? Like how? In my opinion, the only justification that would sound plausible, is ill-health. If that was the cause of JM’s absence, Naana Jane ‘nko?’ as our Yoruba friends will ask.

It turned out I was not alone in wondering. Koku Anyidoho, until recently a Bonafide stalwart of the NDC, raised a similar query.

“So, after inciting NDC supporters onto the streets, JM and his family stayed at home huh? The monkeys should go and die for the baboons to stay alive and walk …? We live to see. Ghana shall NOT die,” Koku wrote and I have only quoted.

The elephant in the room

The expression ‘elephant in the room’ means a major problem or controversial issue which is obviously present but is avoided as a subject for discussion.

Incidentally, the governing party has the elephant as its symbol. And lately, I have been asking myself very frequently how those leading us in this country, aside President Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia, got into those positions. That’s because their reactions to public concerns expose the absence of strategic thinking in their proposed approaches to the concerns.

Then I remembered the advice John Mahama reported that ex-President Kufuor gave him, “in selecting someone to help you in political office, the criterion is loyalty, loyalty and loyalty.”

Yes, a lot of loyal people are leading us in all spheres of our national life. Any regular reader of this column would know that I have taken on a few in the past and will continue to fish them out. My beef is that they are so blinded by loyalty that before they speak, they do not stop to examine how their speech would be received by right thinking people.

At a time when objectively minded Ghanaians were urging officials of the Electoral Commission to grant the NDC’s request, the scribe of the elephant party, Justin Kodua Frimpong, had cause to say that the party’s supporters nationwide will hit the streets to protest against the Electoral Commission if the demand is granted by the EC.

He contended that in 2015, the Electoral Commission’s officers told political parties that it is capable of handling its constitutional duties.

“It is obvious that recent agitations by the NDC pertaining to the 2024 Provisional Register are needless, deceptive, mischievous, and a deliberate attempt to create tensions in the country,” he posted on his X page.

He added, “If the EC accepts the position of the NDC, the NPP will also hit the streets. It will mean that the Electoral Commission is not consistent.”

Such a needless statement. You are both key stakeholders. You don’t have anything against the EC’s self-confessed errors. The other key stakeholder says the mistakes are unpardonable. They suspect there could be more, hence the need for an audit. What is your business telling the EC not to grant the NDC’s request when you can be shush?

Clearly, the fact that his statement feeds into the perception held by the NDC and some worried onlookers that the EC is scheming in favour of the NPP, is lost on him.

It’s time to go

Well, the Electoral Commission has responded to the NDC’s petition.

And in what seems like an adherence to the prohibition issued by the NPP’s scribe, Mrs Jean Mensa wrote, “As a Commission, we are of the view that the existing legal and administrative processes for cleaning the Provisional Voters’ Register (PVR) have not been fully exhausted to justify the call for a Forensic Audit. We entreat the NDC and the General Public to trust us to deliver our mandate.”

This posturing and the fact that the Movement for Change led by Alan Kyerematen and other well-meaning Ghanaians have reiterated the need for some form of forensic audit, begs the question, what will the EC lose if it subjects the register to this audit?

Nothing!! If you ask me. The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) is reported to have indicated readiness to sponsor this exercise, but still…Instead, Mrs Mensa wants us to trust them. Did I hear someone say trust is earned?

Wherefore, I conclude this article with the title of my earlier piece, “2024 Elections- Auntie Adukwɛi, please…, “kɛ awie ni onuuu lɛ, onaa kɛ ohiŋmɛi.”

Zdravo- That’s goodbye in Serbian.

Let God Lead! Follow Him directly, not through any human.

The writer is the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Columnist of the Year- 2022. He is the author of two books whose contents share knowledge on how anyone desirous of writing like him can do so. Eric can be reached via email eric.ayettey@mediageneralgh.com