Opinions of Sunday, 29 September 2024

Columnist: Majeed Abukari

Ghana's electoral system has become a joke!

A polling centre A polling centre

In an era where a political party is seen above a national interest in Ghana. Everything about thus country for the past seven years is either on a verge of collapse or has irresponsibly collapsed.

Institutions which are supposed to be strong are undeservedly weak. Water bodies which are supposed to be cleaned are undeservedly polluted with chemicals. The forest reserves which are supposed to be protected are blatantly exposed to illegal mining(galamsey). The electoral commission which is supposed to have a robust voters' register to ensure an uncompromised electoral system is inundated with serious discrepancies.

Whereas human rights are considered the foundation of fairness and justice to everyone in every democratic nation, it is nowadays loudly abused in Ghana.

Former President of the United States of America Barack Obama on 11th, July 2009 in Ghana said, "Africa doesn't need strong men but strong institutions”. In a shape contrast, the current state of Ghana’s electoral system is rather calling on strong men to stand up against the persistent, adamant posturing of the electoral commission to ensure credit elections in recent times. That is where the danger is staring Ghana on her face.

We can't compromise on bad a voters' register for the seek of peace. It should rather be in our collective interest to have a credible register for the credibility of the December elections. With this, peace will be assured.

Imagine, Adama is an illiterate in the countryside, but has been directed to check her information on the voters' register electronically. How does she do it?

Even if she successfully did, how does she read the message to know whether she has been illegally transferred to a different polling station? Beyond this, even if someone read it for her, but she has been wrongly transferred to another polling station, how does she report it to her district electoral commission office if she leaves miles away from the office?

I have, on many platforms, had argued that, the EC is creating a platform for disruptive elections in December should it refuse to accept an independent forensic audit. Why did I have to say that?

Provided that, the EC has indeed rectified and corrected those errors reported by the main opposition NDC, but has refused for an independent forensic audit or refuse to make a copy available to the NDC to verify. The party may like to use that as a yardstick in the unlikely event it doesn't favor them not to accept the outcome of the elections since it is still skeptical that the EC has corrected the anomalies. And so, to let sleeping dogs to rest, it should be in the interest of the EC to open itself for a forensic audit to cure that unconvincing claim that the register has been cleaned.

As I was sited in car visiting the Nzema land, I was teary-eyed when I saw the river Ankobra which was bluish and now turned like a chocolate color. Why must this government allowed this when he controls the security agencies? All in the name of allowing party people in making money at the detriment of our forest reserves, and water bodies.

It is heartbreaking to note that this government had granted mining licenses to over a thousand small and medium scale miners after deceitfully establishing “operation gallamstop” out of which colossal amounts of taxpayers money had been sunk into that failed fight against gallamsey. The appalling question to even ask is, where are the monitoring devices (drones) but this havoc on the forest reserves and river bodies causing otherwise avoidable sicknesses, and deaths?

Unfortunately, here we are, that patriotic Ghanaian citizens who thought it worthwhile to call on the government to stop gallamsey are arrested and put before the court. A clear indication of abuse of power, and a breakdown of institutions.

Where are the rights of the citizens of Ghana if they can't protest against the wanton depletion of our forest reserves, and water bodies through illegal mining?

Does it mean that a political party is more important than the Nation? Quite abusive of the power bestowed on this government by the oppressed.

For this reason, the time has come to call a spade a spade for the collective interest of Ghana.