An astute member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has pointed out some flaws in the recent district assembly elections and in addition, he has intimated that the 2024 presidential election would be chaotic if the EC Chairperson, Mrs. Jean Mensa fails to build consensus with all stakeholders involved in the election process.
In an exclusive interview on Citi FM, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mustapha Gbande touched on some challenges witnessed as the just district assembly elections, emphasizing on issues pertaining delays and hitches experienced during the conduction of the election blaming the situation on lack of competence on the side of the EC Chairperson.
According to Mustapha Gbande, the NDC, after taking a critical look at the the conduction of district assembly elections, can draw a decisive conclusion that the country has an electoral commission that doesn’t believe in building consensus among stakeholders and learning from past mistakes.
Some problems faced by the EC Chairperson during the district assembly elections held on Tuesday, 19th December, included malfunction Biometric Verification Devices, delays in the dissemination of voting materials to some parts of the country and detection of errors on some ballot papers resulting in the reschedule of voting.
Speaking about the recent irregularities, the NDC Deputy General Secretary said some of the issues could have been avoided if the EC had engaged stakeholders prior to the said election.
He further disclosed that the EC Chairperson failed to envision that inventory might not get to the various voting centers on time adding she didn’t even check to ensure things were in order before the election day.
Expressing his view on the recent lapses observed at the recent district assembly elections, Mr. Mustapha Gbande said the aforementioned problems clearly shows Ghana is dealing with an EC Chairperson who is highly incompetent and has low level of experience as management of elections is concerned.
He reiterated that it is very dangerous for such situations to be popping up ahead of the 2024 presidential election and he feels it is step in the wrong direction if this same person would be made to oversee the operations of the forthcoming election.
