Editor of the Patriot Newspaper, Peter Bamfoe, has expressed that the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana’s (CDD-Ghana) report on Ghanaians’ confidence in the Electoral Commission is inconsistent with the realities on the ground.
According to him, he finds it hard to believe that Ghanaians will have confidence in the Electoral Commission when many people have complained of happenings at the voters’ registration exercise and the voters’ exhibition exercise.
Speaking to Samuel Eshun on the ‘Editors’ Take’ segment of the Happy Morning Show, he said : “I was shocked that 83% of Ghanaians have so much confidence in the EC. The report virtually dwells on the EC with so many inconsistencies. At the time CDD made this report, it was the time that we were done with the registration exercise and had proceeded with the voters’ exhibition. They did the exhibition exercise with thousands of names missing. In certain instances, there were empty registers taken to the polling stations for exhibitions. Even there were MPs whose names were missing from the register”.
Peter Bamfoe noted that contrary to what the reports say about the EC, the EC has not displayed readiness ahead of the December polls.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Jean Mensa, has assured Parliament that the commission is 95 per cent ready to conduct a successful, credible, fair, orderly and peaceful election on December 7.
A week ago, the Director of Research of CDD-Ghana, Dr Edem Selormey, noted that most Ghanaians believed that the EC and other state elections-related bodies were well prepared for the election.
The survey, she said, rated the preparedness of the institutions as 91 per cent for the Ghana Armed Forces, 89 per cent for the media, 87 per cent for the police, 83 per cent for the EC and 66 per cent for the National Peace Council.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah