A former Director of Elections for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah has said the current tension between the Chair of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei and some of her deputies started two years ago.

Mrs Osei has been accused by her staff of fraud and financial malfeasance. They have petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo for her removal.

The concerned workers at the EC in their petition stated among other things: “Following her appointment as EC chair, Mrs. Charlotte compromised the independence and neutrality of the Commission by arranging for 2015 V8 Land Cruiser with registration WR 2291-15 from the Office of the President for use as official vehicle without going through the procurement process or recourse to the Commission.”

But responding to this, Mrs Osei said she did “not use a vehicle with the said registration number WR2291-15. Following her appointment as Chairperson, the Office of the Chief of Staff allocated Mrs. Osei a vehicle. This is certainly not a new practice in Ghana’s public service.

Indeed, the office of the Chief of Staff provided and continues to provide vehicles for many government institutions and appointees. The Chairperson could therefore not have compromised her independence or neutrality as she neither requested nor lobbied for the said vehicle. Indeed, this flawed argument would imply that the Commission receiving money from the Government of Ghana compromises the neutrality of the Commission.”

Speaking in an interview with Jonas Ofori Yeboah on Class91.3FM’s 505 prgrammme on Monday, 24 July in connection with the accusations and counter-accusations among the EC officials, Mr Korsah said the NPP is yet to take a position on the matter but “this is a worrying situation.”

“For the last two years, this tension has been real, closer to the elections it was so prevalent.”

EC boss debunks allegations levelled against her by unfazed staff by GhanaWeb on Scribd