Independent Presidential Candidate in the 2012 and 2016 elections and a founding member of Ghana First Platform, Mr. Jacob Osei Yeboah, popularly known as ‘JOY’ has raised concerns over certain processes conducted by the Electoral Commission which he deems as discriminatory against independent candidates.
According to him, the EC’s decision to allow political parties to ballot for positions on the ballot papers before considering independent candidates is unfair.
He shared his concerns on the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun when he was giving an update on the presidential aspirants’ recent meeting with the EC ahead of filing nominations for the 2020 elections.
“They [EC] called on the presidential aspirants and took us through the guidelines in filing the form. They asked us to share our concerns. We gave them our concerns and they explained things to us.
One thing I did not understand is they allowing political parties to ballot first before independent candidates. That is discriminatory. As we go to the polls, we are going to vote for a president who will form a government. It is not the political parties forming a government”.
He added that both presidential aspirants of political parties and independent candidates go through the same process of paying the same filing fee and getting two people in districts to nominate them.
JOY noted that he put this concern before the director of elections at the Electoral Commission and he hopes his concern will be addressed when the commissioners are informed.
Meanwhile, he commended the EC on its efforts to provide clearer information on the electoral processes to the citizens.
Balloting for positions on ballot paper
Balloting for positions on the ballot paper is keenly anticipated since political parties use their positions on the ballot paper to coin attractive political slogans to win more votes in their campaigns to win political power.
In 2000, for instance, balloting and sloganeering came up and when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) found itself at the bottom of the ballot paper, it coined the slogan “Asee Ho”.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), which occupied the second position on the paper, came up with “Esoro ho”. Those developments generated intense interest in the political campaign.
For independent candidates however, it has been the norm that they do not engage in the balloting because they automatically would follow the political parties on the ballot paper.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah