Press Releases of Friday, 18 March 2016

Source: CENAB UK

Charlotte Osei, the EC chair, is determined to cause chaos

With only 7 months and 2 weeks for the 2016 general and Presidential elections, all indications, calculating from the posture and resisting obstinacy of Charlotte Osei, the supposed 'independent - minded' Electoral Commissioner prove that she is ready to commit Ghana into chaos.
We, members of CENAB UK, wish to bluntly point it out to Ms Osei that your role as Ghana's Electoral Commissioner only empowers you in a capacity of an overseeing referee who declares the electoral wish expressed by Ghanaian voters, and that you have no vested right to decide for them, neither by pre-empting, nor making any ex post facto changes.

We wish to further state that, your constitutional role is to compile and ensure that the voters roll so compiled is a true reflection of the accurate adult voter percentage of the entire population that is acceptable by all standards.

From the above stated administrative and management role empowered by the Ghana constitution, we see no reason why Ms Osei you have chosen to bestride over the institution of the commission, as if you have a special knowledge on elections, as if you have graduated from a specialist elections university, yet you are seen by the public as having not even a smattering of knowledge on elections.

We recall that from the day of your appointment as Electoral Commissioner, you have got everything wrong. Spanning from your supposed objectivity and impartiality as a would-be upright referee, your approach to public sentiments, through to your calculation of bloated figures, have all been besmirched, yet your posture of pride, arrogance, and haughtiness have blinded and deafened you from seeing, and listening to good counsel.
Experience, it is said, is a good teacher, so we would have thought that, Ms Osei would take a cue from what has happened before in other countries, especially from electoral mismanagement, and indeed what havoc electoral disputes can cause, if care is not taken.

We see you, Ms Charlotte Osei, either as virtually confused about what to do in your position, because, when confronted with finding a solution to creating a credible and acceptable voters register, you formed a 5 - member committee, led by VCRAC Crabbe, with a pledge to the Ghanaian public that you would adhere to their report and recommendations, or that you are irreparably incompetent. To the surprise of Ghanaians, you sought for parliamentary approval of your appropriation bill for the 2016 elections, by pre-empting the yet to be received report and recommendations. After receiving the documents, spirited with stubbornness, you simply shelved it. This suggests something very ominous behind your persistent recutiency.
Your disregard, and disrespect for the Ghanaian public, including our traditional heads, who have put in their voice for you to create a credible voters register, and to ensure a credible elections, have all been manifested, not only in the eyes and minds of Ghanaians, but across the international world. We don't know exactly what is wrong with you, and what exactly that you want to achieve.
These notwithstanding, in the Abu Ramadan v the EC and the Attorney General, a Supreme Court order has expressly enjoined you to sit down with the plaintiffs, and to do so with a good heart, and settle matters amicably. Ms Osei, you have shrugged off this order by the law Lords, and gone ahead with doing your so-called acid test for a clean register, a decision and an exercise which did not involve any of the stakeholders. What today, has become of your 18-member committee that you formed?

With the ruling government serving as your absolute protégé, you have ring fenced the vicinity of the EC, ludicrously as a security zone, whereas your institution serves public interest, and must be readily accessible to the public. You do appear to have been robed in a politically motivated armoury, and feeling invincible.

We, CENAB UK, in solidarity with the LMVCA, do hereby emphatically state to you that, your role as Electoral Commissioner is to serve the people, by adhering to the provisions of the Ghana constitution, and to do so by consulting with all recognised and acknowledged stakeholders. We stand steadfast with the LMVCA ultimatum, which we uphold, and we expect your compliance within the specified time, therefore, if in spite of these, it is your determination to be so unbending to reason and reasonableness, we Ghanaians will vigorously resist all your machinations. Should it come to the worst, please, have yourself to blame.

CENAB UK Media Team
Adreba Kwaku Abrefa Damoa, (+447901119669)
Susan Akomeah (+447956371492)
Peter Antwi-Boasiako (+447950388567)
Kingsley Adumattah Agyapong (+447961068635)