The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has blamed the Electoral Commission (EC) for failing to clamp down on political parties that fall short of the country’s electoral laws.
“You (EC) are partly to blame. You register anyone who walks to your office, but you are supposed to ensure that they have acted according to all the laws,” he indicated.
According to the overlord of the Ashanti Kingdom, the EC must enforce the stipulated laws to ensure fairness. To him, the EC has allowed the proliferation of many political parties due to its failure to implement its laws to the letter.
He reminded the EC about laws that call for political parties to have offices in two-thirds of districts across the country. In addition, he said the law that calls for the filing of audited accounts annually must be enforced.
He admonished the EC to take a critical look at all these after the December 7 polls to bring sanity in Ghana’s electoral systems.
The Asantehene further cautioned the EC not to take any decisions that would plunge the country into chaos as Ghana makes preparations towards the presidential and parliamentary elections on December 7.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II made this call as he chaired a meeting at the second general meeting of the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs in Kumasi on Wednesday, October 26.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs Charlotte Osei, has indicated that the list of polling stations across the country and the final voters’ register will be made available to political parties by the end of October.
According to the commission, this would ensure a high level of transparency ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections.
She disclosed this as she addressed the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on preparations towards this year’s elections.
She said no polling station would hold more than 850 voters in this year’s elections. According to her, this would ease pressure on verification and vote counting machines on the Election Day.
“The political parties by Friday will get a list of all the polling stations,” she stressed.
In addition “all of them (political parties) who have brought their hard drives will have a list of the final voters’ register”.
She stressed: “The register has now been finalised; we have implemented all the decisions and we are in a good place and so they (political parties) will have the register at the end of this week. We will probably have an approximately 15,800,000 names thereabout on the register going into the elections.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
