A governance expert, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah, has remarked that the process through which the former Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, was removed from office was unusual. He pointed out that it was concerning that the president acted on a single petition against her by referring it to the Chief Justice for further action.
To him, a single petition against the Chair of the Commission was not enough to warrant the removal. Speaking about the concerns raised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against the current voter register, on TV3’s Big Issue, Monday, September 9, Prof Baffour Agyeman-Duah suggested that there should be better ways of handling such petitions against the EC chair.
“The way the former Chair Charlotte Osei was removed was strange, just one individual submitted a petition, and that one individual’s petition was conveyed to the Supreme Court. This gives room for others to come and do the same. I think there must be a better way of handling a petition to remove the EC chair,” he said.
He further suggested that the powers given to the president to appoint a chair of the commission should be taken away and given to another body outside of the executive arm of government. This, he said will inspire confidence in the electoral process.
Selecting the EC Chair independently of the executive will go a long way. The appointing authority is an issue here, the president appoints but in many countries, the EC chairs are appointed outside the executive authority.”
Mrs. Osei and two of her deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwa, were on Thursday, June 28 removed from office as Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) by Nana Akufo-Addo on grounds of “stated misbehaviour and incompetence”.
Their removal was on the back of recommendations from a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the three on allegations brought against them by some staff of the Commission in July 2017.
Some Ghanaians and some members of the National Democratic Congress have accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of hiding behind a petition to remove especially Mrs Osei who was appointed by John Mahama three years ago. They grounded their claim on some utterances by key members of the New Patriotic government before they came into the office to the effect that they were going to ensure the removal of Mrs Osei.
But President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo justified the removal of Mrs. Charlotte Osei and her two deputies from office, indicating that though the decision was a painful one, he had no choice but to act the manner he did.
Speaking to the Ghanaian community in Nouakchott, Mauritania, Mr Akufo-Addo indicated that he had no option but to act by the law.
“I don’t have the power to say I disagree with the Committee; the law does not give me the power to investigate on my own to say I disagree with the Committee,” he told the gathering in Twi on July 1, 2018. The law says whatever recommendation the committee will present, I as the President, ought to obey and implement. That is why I removed Madam Charlotte Osei and her two deputies from Office,” Akufo-Addo explained.
By: Laud Nartey