John Dramani Mahama, a former president, has voiced concerns about Ghana’s election management in comparison to Nigeria’s.
Mr. Mahama was impressed by the confidence that all the candidates and parties have in the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria while visiting the country as part of a pre-election tour organised by the West African Elders Forum (WAEF).
He said that every political party in Nigeria had attested that INEC had heard and taken into account their concerns.
He regretted that the Ghanaian Electoral Commission cannot be held responsible for the same (EC). He claims that the EC was formerly one of the world’s leading organizations for overseeing elections.
“I can’t say the same for my Electoral Commission (EC), which was once among the top election administration organizations in the world,” he said.
Mr. Mahama lamented the NDC’s treatment at the hands of the “EC and her other Commissioners,” calling it “hostility,” and expressed the wish that the EC could instill the same level of trust in all parties as the INEC.
But according to the former president, the EC rejected all of the National Peace Council’s efforts to set up a meeting between the Commission and the two main political parties, the NDC and the NPP. As a result, the former president fears that his wish would remain unfulfilled.
“Regrettably, I am not hopeful this will happen when we have an EC that has blatantly spurned all efforts by the National Peace Council to host a meeting between the Commission and the two major political parties, the NDC and NPP,” he said.
