Politics of Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

'God has kept this country from a civil war, the EC is tempting fate' – Kofi Bentil

Chairperson of the EC Jean Mensa and IMANI vice president Kofi Bentil Chairperson of the EC Jean Mensa and IMANI vice president Kofi Bentil

A Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has slammed the Electoral Commission of Ghana over the commission's actions in the handling of its deputies.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based JoyNews, Kofi Bentil accused the commission of setting aside the laws of the country and engaging in activities it wants.

He added that the commission also fails to listen to reasoning, which is why the country has issues during electioneering years, especially with the voters' register.

“The current debate is exactly because we have an Electoral Commission which has essentially become a pernicious institution. It refuses to do what is written in the law. It arrogates to itself powers it does not have. It creates an unnecessary cost and stress on this country.

“And you have political parties like NDC and co, they (the EC) won't even respond to them. So, this debate, if you check in the past, about four election cycles, we almost every time have a strained debate about registration. And here we are again. And it doesn't make any sense,” he said.

The IMANI vice president explained that the job of the EC is to ensure that every voter gets the chance to vote, but the commission has time without number taken actions that go contrary to that.

“The constitution says, compile and register. And in (sic) Addy, it was made sufficiently clear to the Electoral Commission that your job is to facilitate voting. Your job is not to do things to make people lose their right to vote. It is the other way.

“And you have a situation where this Electoral Commission chooses not to listen to the law, not to listen to even the main parties. We have a judgment against the EC to do things it refuses to do, and then it just goes ahead and does what it wants to do.”

He indicated that the actions of the EC endanger Ghana’s democracy and are likely to land the country in trouble.

“When we go in, we will look at some of these details about why the EC is becoming a lawless institution and sends us around this thing every four years. God has kept this country from a civil war. The EC is tempting fate and we should score it at the point it refuses to be audited. Nobody knows the extent of its assets,” Bentil concluded.

Watch his remarks in the video below:



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