EC’s credibility is problematic - Professor Kwesi Aning

Security and Political Analyst, Professor Kwesi Aning, has raised concerns about the credibility of Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) ahead of the December elections. According to him, the election management body’s credibility is “problematic”, describing the commission as error-prone.

His comments followed the EC’s recent statement announcing shortfalls in presidential and parliamentary ballot papers for five constituencies in the Volta Region.

In a statement dated Thursday, 28th November, signed by Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, the commission listed the affected areas as Keta, Ketu North, Ho Central, Hohoe, and Ho West constituencies. The EC noted that the shortfalls would be printed by Acts Commercial printing house in Accra and requested political parties and presidential candidates to provide two representatives each to monitor the process.

Speaking in an interview with Joy News on Friday November 29, Professor Aning highlighted how these repeated errors erode public trust in the EC ahead of the critical 2024 elections.

He stated:

They make too many mistakes and there are too many corrections and too many reversals. And some of their utterances are also not helpful. Peace works best when the most critical institutions, whose actions should ensure that people trust those institutions and embed their trust and respect in those institutions, must be careful in the way that they put things on paper and the way that they behave and say things.

He emphasised:

Over time, an institution's credibility gets eroded when its actions and interventions are not necessarily challenged by those who receive their actions, but they themselves continuously change their positions. So between now and the elections, and until the results are declared, the EC itself must be careful and double-check whatever it puts out into the public domain.

However, Professor Aning commended the presidential candidates of the two main political parties—the ruling NPP’s Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and the opposition NDC’s John Dramani Mahama—for their consistent calls for peace ahead of the elections.

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