Chair of the Electoral Commission Mrs Charlotte Osei has said she cannot manipulate the electoral processes in favour of President John Mahama and the governing National Democratic Congress in the December polls.
“It is just not possible under the system… I believe we should have a process that is so strong that regardless of how malevolent Charlotte Osei wants to be, she should not be able to rig the elections,” she said on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme on Thursday 11 August.
The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has on several occasions accused Mrs Osei of being up to no good as far as the elections are concerned.
However, Mrs Osei told Good Evening Ghana host, Paul Adom-Otchere that: “For Charlotte Osei to [rig elections], she has to get the support and active involvement of her six co-commissioners, her 10 regional directors, the 200-plus district electoral officers, the 275 returning officers, and their two assistants.
“Then when you get to the polling stations, for this year’s elections, Charlotte Osei has to let all these people decide to toe one line. You are likely to have over 500,000 agents for candidates per party and two counting agents per party at the collation centres. All these people must actively be working and changing the documents for Charlotte Osei to rig the elections.
“So I need to convince 500,000-plus people to skew the system in favour of one person. I haven’t figured out how to do that yet and it is not even a part of my value system that I will do that. Basically, it is impossible,” she told show host Paul Adom-Otchere.
The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been fiercely critical of the EC in the lead up to the general polls, fearing the chairperson of the Commission, who was appointed by the president, intends to skew the December polls to favour him and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking about the NPP’s accusation that she is biased against the party, Mrs Osei said: “We have a high level of mistrust and we tend to focus on persons… Criticisms by themselves are not bad. All of us, we need criticisms to improve upon whatever we are doing. The problems are unfounded allegations, comments that are without basis….”
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
