By Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Lead Petitioner of a group aiming to oust the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, has expressed serious concerns regarding the Commission’s alleged disenfranchisement of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) residents during the 2020 parliamentary elections.
Franklin Cudjoe, President of IMANI Africa, accused the EC of being accountable for the disenfranchisement of SALL residents, claiming that insufficient efforts were made to facilitate their participation in the voting process.
However, the EC rebuffed these accusations in a statement released on Wednesday, May 15, asserting that it never disenfranchised the residents of the newly formed Guan Constituency.
A statement signed by the Lead Petitioner for the Removal of the Chair and Other Commissioners of the EC described the EC’s version of events as legally incomprehensible.
The Petitioners further criticized the EC for what they perceived as a failure to comprehend the constitutional integrity it is mandated to uphold.
“We note that the Commission has presented a set of facts that are not only legally incomprehensible but also manifests a worrying lack of appreciation of the independent mandate and functional integrity that the Constitution sought to bestow on the Commission.
“This was particularly evident in brazen admission that the Electoral Commission considers itself amenable to the direction and control of the President and his appointees rather than the Constitution.”
The group has described the EC’s actions as intentional and negligent, even going so far as to label them “criminal”.
“We are convinced that the actions of the Electoral Commission were either intentional or negligent and thus criminal; or that they were a demonstration of ineptitude, both of which are disqualifying.”
The Petitioners contend that the EC’s decision to bar eligible voters in the Guan District from participating in the 2020 Parliamentary elections as part of the Buem Constituency constituted a breach of its own Constitutional Instrument (C.I.).
“The decision of the Electoral Commission to deny the eligible voters of the Guan District to vote in the 2020 Parliamentary elections as part of the Buem Constituency was in direct contravention of C.I. 128, which was made by the Electoral Commission itself,” they argued.
