Renowned governance expert Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah has suggested that the constitutional power given to the president to appoint an Electoral Commission chair should be amended.
The Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) fellow opined that the authoritative appointment power should be given to another autonomous body outside the executive arm of government. This, he said will inspire confidence in the electoral process.
Prof Agyeman-Duah made these submissions while sharing his insight on the suspicious removal of the former EC Chair, Charlotte Osei from office despite her outstanding performance.
“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.
“Selecting the EC Chair independently of the executive will go a long to help. The appointing authority is an issue here, the president appoints but in many countries, the EC chairs are appointed outside the executive authority”.
It will be recalled that Mrs Osei and two of her deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwa, were on Thursday, June 28, 2018, removed from office as Commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC) by Nana Akufo-Addo on grounds of “misbehaviour and incompetence”.
Their removal was on the back of recommendations from a committee set up by the Chief Justice to investigate the three 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 prior to their coming into 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.