EC, Charlotte Osei using litigation to rig polls – PPP

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has accused Electoral Commission of plotting to rig the 2016 elections through litigation with political parties. The PPP claims that EC is prolonging litigation with aggrieved political parties to ensure a rushed electoral process which will compromise the monitoring mechanisms and the credibility of the elections. “It is a deliberate ...

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has accused Electoral Commission of plotting to rig the 2016 elections through litigation with political parties.

The PPP claims that EC is prolonging litigation with aggrieved political parties to ensure a rushed electoral process which will compromise the monitoring mechanisms and the credibility of the elections.

“It is a deliberate scheme employed by the state institution with the support of the Electoral Commission to be divert attention so that there will be an opportunity for full rigging in the 2016 elections,” the Director of Policy for the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Siaw, said to Citi News.

The EC recently decided to head to the Supreme Court to overturn a High Court judgment quashing the disqualification of their Flagbearer, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.

It is also fighting lawsuits from the Great Consolidated Popular Party, the National Democratic Party, the Independent People’s Party, the AllPeople’s Congress and the People’s National Congress.

But Mr. Siaw insisted that the PPP was already seeing through the antics of the Commission and its Chairperson, Charlotte Osei.

“Her interest is very obvious. She is doing the bidding for somebody. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense for the Electoral Commission that is established by the constitution to promote political participation and enhance the democratic process to be staking steps that deny people the opportunity to take part in the process,” he said.

“Our conclusion is very simple. It is that the PPP and the disqualification saga is just a ploy, a decoy, to divert attention from the germane things that are supposed to be discussed in this election,” Mr. Siaw added.

Important questions not being asked

The PPP added that: “when are ballots going to be printed? Which companies are printing them? What is the proportion assigned to these companies? Which companies are printing for which regions so that they have some responsibility for what goes wrong there. What are the ranges of serial numbers? What is even the contract some?”

Mr. Siaw bemoaned that, “these questions are not being asked because somehow, the Electoral Commission (EC) through its collaborators have designed a scheme that hijacks all of us towards a particular direction.”

He explained that by PPP’s estimation, the litigation would go on for the next two weeks because “the Electoral Commission per their action and conduct in the PPP case is likely to take the APC and the PNC on all the way to the supreme court if doesn’t go in the favour of the Electoral Commission. That gives you another 2 weeks of litigation.”

“Then you will wake up one day and you realize we have only two weeks to go to the election and then they will rush things through.”

Mr. Siaw feared that the process would be rushed and there will be no time to time to scrutinize the electoral process and “when you don’t have time to scrutinize, auditing becomes impossible and you cant trace anything and you rush things through and they declare somebody.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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