Former President John Dramani Mahama has hit hard at the Electoral Commission (EC) saying it had become pliant tools for the furtherance of the political ends of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“The Electoral Commission, instead of making it easy for our citizens to take part in elections, rather takes delight in making it difficult. They appear determined to ensure the disenfranchisement of sections of our population at all costs, through a misguided insistence on the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for a voter card,” he bemoaned.
Speaking at workshop organised for the Minority Caucus in Ho last Sunday, Mr. Mahama argued that the Ghana Card was a relatively new feature of the national life and had its merits in the scheme of things, and that at the moment it was being brandished more as a political tool around which all manner of schemes were being fashioned towards elections.
The National Identification Authority (NIA), Mr. Mahama further said, could not claim to have covered every Ghanaian who should be registered, or distributed all the cards printed to those who have been captured in their system, since they had failed to distribute hundreds of thousands of cards to people who had registered.
“Until full and total coverage is achieved in the rollout of the Ghana Card, room must be made for those who are yet to be served to exercise their democratic rights of voting. They cannot be excluded from the voter register due to no fault of theirs,” he warned.
He contended that the haste on the part of the Electoral Commission to exclude all other means of identification was a clear sign of indecency, and informed by an ulterior objective.
“The Commission, in its present guise, is known to have walked back on similar commitments in the recent past, and so we, in the NDC, will maintain eternal vigilance to ensure that no such thing happens.
“The process of continuous registration, as canvassed by the Electoral Commission, must necessarily include a system that enables all political parties and relevant stakeholders to possess the capacity to monitor same in real time to avoid fraud and exploitation to the undue advantage of any party,” the former President advised.
He also reiterated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Minority in Parliament would not support the $1 billion syndicated loan agreement brought before the Legislative House by Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister.
The former President said: “The NDC and the Minority in Parliament would not be supporting the ultra-expensive $1 billion syndicated loan agreement brought to Parliament by the Finance Minister.”
According to him, the NDC did not believe that the existence of a crisis permits even more reckless decision making, because all decisions and policy choices made at this critical juncture could offer relief or exacerbate the problems and make recovery extremely difficult.
Mr. Mahama indicated that the NDC would continue to do its part by holding the government to account, and offering viable alternative paths. “Where the NPP saw political advantage and an opportunity for political rent-seeking in 2015 when we went to the IMF, we see a nation in distress that requires urgent salvation in 2022, when we have gone back to the IMF.
“That is why we have been measured and responsible in our commentary and posturing over the latest IMF decision by this government. It is also the reason why we have insisted on effective scrutiny of the economic and financial decisions of this government at this time, especially in Parliament,” he added.
The former President recounted how after a lengthy period of living in denial and plunging the economy into unprecedented doldrums, the government finally decided to request an IMF programme. This decision, he said, was left so late that substantial damage had been done to the economy by the time the call was finally made.
He added: “Inflation stands at a 19-year high of almost 30% for June, and is almost set to rise. Our deficit and revenue targets have so far been badly missed, and we are most likely to post yet another double-digit deficit at the end of this financial year. Our public debt has continued to mount.”
