‘EC Must Publish Time-Table’

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Created on Thursday, 04 June 2015 00:00

‘EC Must Publish Time-Table’

04 June 2015

Gabriel Pwamang, former general secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC) and nominee for the Supreme Court, has said there is an urgent need for the Electoral Commission (EC) to have a well-gazetted time-table for an election year.

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This, he said, would have to be published to allow political parties to plan well towards elections so that their efforts would not be offset by any circumstances.

He said it is also very important to actively involve all political parties in drawing the time-table or programmes for the general elections so that any postponement of a programme on the calendar would not adversely affect the integrity of the process and the general elections.

He gave the advice when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament yesterday to be vetted.

According to the former chief scribe of the PNC, what happened in 2012 when the EC was creating new constituencies and also introducing biometric registration thereby affecting the early release of the voter register to political parties were not the best.

“There was a crash programme by the EC that sprang a lot of surprises on the political parties which should not have happened,” he said.

Mr Pwamang said such crash programmes negatively affect the preparations of political parties towards the elections, adding that that should not be repeated for the sake of building trust between the EC on one hand and the political parties on the other.

On the 2012 election petition, he said that Ghana could learn a lot from Kenya where the petition was heard in 15 days and ruling subsequently made.

He said for a better determination of the 2012 petition, the Supreme Court could have ordered for an enquiry for the original pink sheets to be made available in court for the avoidance of any controversy.

To a question, Pwamang proposed that the ceiling to the number of Supreme Court judges should be 15.

The former general secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who is now the Member of Parliament for Okere, Dan Kwaku Botwe, told DAILY GUIDE that the presence of Gabriel Pwamang in the Supreme Court would help the bench to have more understanding of electoral matters because he (Pwamang) had been a general secretary before and would be of immense benefit.

The NPP MP for Bekwai and member of the Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu, also appreciated the call for the EC to collaborate with political parties in drawing a time-table for an election year.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana