Jean Mensah doing the bidding of NPP to help them win 2020 election – Otokunor
Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor has accused the governing New Patriotic Party and President Akufo-Addo of forcing out Charlotte Osei in a grand scheme to manipulate the 2020 elections.
The chairperson of the EC, Peter Boamah Otokunor divulged, only does the bidding of President Akufo-Addo and his appointees rather than perform her duties in the national interest.
The NDC Deputy General Secretary’s attack on the EC comes on the back of some assertions made by the President to the effect that he doesn’t need the Electoral Commission to win an election, contrary to what is being speculated by his opponents.
The President made these comments when the Electoral Commissioner, as part of a series of consultative meetings with stakeholders of the electioneering process led her team to pay a courtesy call on him at Jubilee House.
President Akufo-Addo told the EC, “I said it to you before, and I will repeat it. I don’t need the Electoral Commission to win an election; I don’t want to win an election in Ghana because of the Electoral Commission. I want to win an election in Ghana because of the people of Ghana; that they make a free and open choice that Akufo-Addo will be, again, their choice, that will be my take and not because the electoral commission is helping me”
However, according to the NDC Deputy General Secretary, the President was being deceptive with his comments suggesting that he had ulterior motives for appointing Jean Mensa as Chairperson of the Commission.
The NDC Deputy General Secretary also alleged that the EC Commissioner and her deputies, ever since coming into office, have been serving the interests of the President.
“Clearly in the style of the president, he will always be deceptive. Everybody knows why he sacked Charlotte Osei from the Electoral Commission and replaced her with Jean Mensa and her two deputies. It is obvious, the way the EC has conducted their affairs from the day they were brought into office and the way the NPP engaged them, the way they pick only advise from the President and operatives of the NPP shows amply that they believe that their fortunes rely on the help of the Electoral Commission” he said.
“Yesterday we got rather more disappointed when we heard the EC chairperson giving credence to what I just said. When she attempted to please the president, to tell the president and show the president that she was worth the appointment and that she is working to the whims and interests of the president, that we thought was very disappointing because an electoral commissioner you don’t need to be pleasing the President” he added.
He further criticized Jean Mensa for laying the blame of her non-performance on the legacy left by her predecessors, describing it as a demonizing attempt.
“You don’t need to be telling the president and demonizing your predecessors to show that you are doing well and you’re helping assist the president interest, that exposes Jean Mensah very badly. Indeed, we have made the point and maintained that Jean Mensah and her activities and her deputies, the way they are running the electoral commission does not portend and electoral commission that can present a neutral or can be presented as a neutral arbiter in our election and that is very worrying”
“Look at what is happening with the electoral commission today, look at the exhibition exercise, look at the kind of suggestions that they are making, the attempt to amend some of the electoral laws which are completely inimical to the interest of the people of this country. I think that there is the need for us as a country to rise up against any attempt by the Electoral Commission to turn the hands of the people and pick the mandate from them, from the Akufo-Addo government. We are very worried by their comments, we are very worried about the posture of the EC and I think that the earlier we speak about it and get it dealt with, the better for all of us,” he intimated.