General News of Friday, 19 February 2016

Source: classfmonline.com

Incompetent EC boss must go – Amoako Baah

Dr Richard Amoako Baah Dr Richard Amoako Baah

The Chair of the Electoral Commission has shown “gross ineptitude and incompetence” and must resign for that, political science lecturer Dr Richard Amoako Baah has said.

According to him, calls by pressure groups Let My Vote Count Alliance (LMVCA) and Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), for the recently inaugurated 10-member steering committee of the EC to be dissolved are appropriate, adding that the packing of the body with NDC-biased members underscores his calls for Mrs Charlotte Osei’s resignation.

“…I support it because she has shown gross incompetence. I mean you saw how she organised the so-called forum. Invited all sorts of people to come and give speeches, most of it not having any direct impact on… and then, of course, she did not even have the fortitude to wait.

You call people to make presentations, and, not just to you, but [to] the panel members. When it is finished, they have to collate all the information received, and based on their review of that information, then you come out with what you think should happen. She couldn’t even do that.

As soon as they finished, the very next day, she announced that it was not a good idea to have a new register. This is ineptitude, its dishonesty, which means it [forum] was all a charade,” Dr Baah said in an interview with Ekow Mensah-Shalders on Class91.3fm’s Executive Breakfast Show on Friday February 19.

As far as the controversial steering committee is concerned, Dr Baas wondered: “Why are you bringing others in to tell you how to do your job. If you can’t do the job, then resign and let somebody else, who can do it, do it.”

“When you pick someone, who belongs to a political party, then that’s the problem. ...The committee should not have come into play at all,” he said, adding that someone should sue the EC over the matter for the courts to compel the dissolution of the body, which the EC has said was composed to assist it organise credible polls in November.

“All of this is a waste of time. We need more time to do this right and the little time we have, look at what is happening. And that, too, shows gross ineptitude and incompetence. …The job is above her,” he said, adding the November polls are not in safe hands.