General News of Wednesday, 5 September 2012

Source: radioxyzonline

"I'll not be frightened" - Afari Gyan

The chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan, has described as laughable, claims that he and the commission are in bed with the government following its intention to create some new constituencies.

According to him, similar criticisms were leveled against the commission during previous regimes and wonders why such accusations keep resurfacing.

Speaking at a public event organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance IDEG in Accra, Dr. Afari Gyan insisted that the EC will go ahead to discharge its constitutional duties and will not give in to intimidation.

"My God, it is becoming very nauseating. Everywhere you turn to [you hear] Kwadwo Afari Gyan… What have I done? I don’t know. That is an insult to the other members of the commission. We are seven and one person alone can have his way?” he quizzed, adding “I can assure you that the other members of the commission are not dunces.”

He said from the way he is being singled out, there may be a reason to believe that those spearheading this crusade may want to harm or frighten him.

“Let me say that I will not be frightened. I will do my work, the commission will do its work in accordance with the understandings of the rules and regulations under which it operates,” he assured.

Dr. Afari Gyan has also been commenting on the challenges confronting the ongoing exhibition of the voters register and efforts to clean it of Ghost names and minors.

He hinted the EC plans to make effective the continuous system of registering to avoid some of the pressures that come along with mass registration exercises.