The assurance by the Electoral Commission (EC) that it has no capacity to rig the 2024 general election in favour of any political party as is being speculated by the National Democratic Congress is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the Electoral Commission (EC) has stated that it has no capacity to rig the 2024 general election in favour of any political party as is being speculated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The Commission said the watertight process of the country’s electoral laws and transparency of the EC’s activities did not give room for rigging of elections.
The Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Operations, Samuel Tettey, stated this at a media engagement held in Accra last Friday, stressing that the NDC and other political parties should focus on training their agents to fully participate in the process leading to the elections rather than accusing the Commission of its intent to rig the elections
The media engagement by the EC came on the heels of a press conference addressed by the General Secretary of the NDC, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, on Thursday, May 16 in which he accused the Commission of planning to rig the elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Touching further on the issue of rigging elections for the NPP, Mr Tettey stressed that “the EC is not in any position to rig elections for any party.” He explained that the electoral process, ranging from voter registration, exhibition of voters register, balloting for positions on the ballot paper, printing of ballot papers, to the activities on the election day, were transparent, and therefore, left no space for opacity.
For instance, he said political parties were officially informed of any voter registration exercise at least 21 days to the commencement of the exercise. Again, he said the level of transparency on election day, where all parties had their agents at polling stations and also monitored the counting and collation, made it impossible for rigging to take place.
“If a political party participates in all the process of the EC and collates their results well, their figure will tally with that of the EC. Elections are won at polling stations and not the EC headquarters,” he stressed. Mr Tettey discounted allegations by the NDC that the recruitment of returning officers by the EC was opaque.
The newspaper says that the President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye, has stated that wisdom and the commitment of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo towards Pan-Africanism was crucial in addressing the misunderstanding between ECOWAS and some members that have threatened to leave.
He said with such leadership, member-states could stop Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from leaving the bloc because “they need ECOWAS and ECOWAS also needs them”.
Forty-four-year-old President Faye stated this during a day’s Working Visit to Ghana.
He was received at the forecourt of the Jubilee House by a contingent from Ghana Navy and saluted with a 21-gun salute. He was sworn in as President of Senegal on April 2, 2024.
President Faye indicated that if the three members had ended up leaving ECOWAS, the regional body would have been weakened.
He said this was the time ECOWAS needed to be stronger and that was why he had pledged his commitment to ensure that they did not leave, adding that “I will be by your side and depend on your wisdom and Pan African ideas and other leaders towards the strengthening of ECOWAS”.
He indicated that he was aware of the heavy responsibility placed on their shoulders as leaders of countries that formed ECOWAS and the need to hand over a stronger and better regional body to the next generation.
President Faye said they would work in tandem and assiduously to strengthen ECOWAS, improve its governance and provide the means and resources that had been affecting us.
He called for the establishment of a Joint Commission between the two countries to facilitate economic, trade and diplomatic ties to facilitate the interactions between officials of the two countries and accelerate the implementation.
The Ghanaian Times reports that at the emergency meeting of Parliament in Accra on Friday, the House approved the nomination of 24 persons as ministers and deputy ministers of state, amid opposition from the Minority caucus.
However, the Majority, unperturbed by the opposition, adopted and approved the report of Appointment Committee, which recommended the approval of the nominees by a majority decision.
Notable among the nominees, were Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, Minister of Health, Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, Minister of Information, Ms Darkoa Newman, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Ophelia Mensah, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Ms Lydia Seyram Alhassan, Sanitation and Water Resources, and Mr Andrew Egyapa Mercer, Tourism, Arts and Culture.
In a spirited defense of the nominations, Majority Leader and MP for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said the nominations were justified as they would enhance the governance of the country.
According to him, qualification to the office of minister and deputy minister are outlined in the constitution and that their colleagues were motivated by politics rather than substance.
He said: “Our colleagues were part of the approval process at the Committee level. It is in bad faith for them to turn around to say that they don’t want to participate.”
Led by Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, MP, Ajumako/Enyan/Esiam, the Minority walked out of the proceedings en masse to register their opposition to the nominations.
The caucus cited what it said was the ongoing economic and power crisis, which needed attention rather than an addition to the number of ministers.
The newspaper says that Prices of basic food commodities are continuously on the rise each market day across major markets in Accra and Kasoa in the Central Region, a market survey by the Ghanaian Times has observed.
Prices of ingredients like tomatoes, pepper, garden eggs, and eggs had increased across the major markets surveyed on each visit.
So also it was for food items like gari, a staple for the ordinary Ghanaian.
A sack of gari, for instance, which used to sell at GH¢1,600 last month, now goes for GH¢ 1,800, while the quantity of gari measured with the standard six-cup tin, locally referred to as olonka, which was previously sold at GH¢25.00, is being retailed at GH¢28.00
For instance, the market survey (at Agbogbloshie in Accra) showed that a bag of garden eggs which was sold at GH¢600.00 a month ago was being sold at GH¢699.00, while a mini-size bucket of red pepper, which was sold at GH¢100.00, is now sold at GH¢130.00, and a mini-size bucket of green pepper, which was sold at GH¢70.00 was selling at GH¢85.00.
A sizeable bunch of “Kontomire” (cocoyam leaves), which used to be sold at GH¢5 and in some instance three for GH¢10, was being sold at GH¢10 per bunch at Kasoa market in the Central Region.
A tuber of yam goes for between GH¢30 to GH¢35.
GIK/APA