Why Ghanaians Should Oppose the Representation of the People (Amendment Bill) In Its Present Form.

There are not many issues that evoke emotions of Ghanaians, and rightly so, than is the issue of elections: the right to reject non performing governments by the ?rule of the thumb?. Since 1992 elections Ghanaians have performed this civic duty with utmost regard that may be the envy of our neighbours. Rather than continue to build on this, we are embarking on a precipice of electoral adventurism.

About a week ago the Attorney General introduced the bill ?The Representation of the People (amendment bill)? to parliament. The Bill seeks to make all Ghanaians eligible to vote whether or not they are resident in Ghana. That is, make it possible for Ghanaians who are currently abroad to vote in the countries where they reside. For example USA, Canada, Mexico, Tashkent, Azerbarjan, Australia, Holland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Burkina, Togo, Benin, Niger, Libya, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Brazil, Nigeria, Namibia, Iceland, Turkey, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tarjiskitan, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Iceland, Gambia, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Serbia etc.

One commentator, K.B Asante, in an article in the Daily Graphic entitled 'The Law About Voting Should Not Change? wrote inter alia: "The bill before parliament designed to enable all eligible Ghanaians living abroad to register and vote in a general election is fraught with dangers of mal-administration and corruption and should be vigorously opposed." He continued: ?"My great concern about voting by Ghanaians abroad is that it would open avenues of dissension, recriminations and corruption. Ambassadors, High Commissioners and the like would be appointed registration and other election officers. Many of them are political appointees and even if they are not, the opposing political parties would question their impartiality. From registration to voting there would be many opportunities for corrupt practices. Even here in Ghana eagle eyes of the opposition parties we have problems. We should not add to them?.

Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, the NPP Member of Parliament for Mfantsiman West in a Joy FM call-in program reported on Joy on Line called for support of the bill. He stated his disagreement with a decision to give Ghanaians living in Ghana the opportunity to make inputs into the people?s representation bill by saying that ?I think basically this is unnecessary and I think Ghanaians living outside will take offence that if it comes to their voting rights, you want to go all over the country?. He went further and added that ?I think probably they are not comfortable with the numbers outside who may vote against them. I am using the word advisably because probably most of them went outside during the PNDC era but that should not be their worry, they should go there and campaign and explain their polices?.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Ghanaians continue to leave the country in droves since the NPP came to power in 2001. Other than that we would have seen massive returnees to Ghana since NPP came to power. Can somebody inform the MP that Ghanaians abroad are ECONOMIC refugees and not political refugees?

In addition to Mr. Asamoah Boateng?s position, other supporters of the bill also suggest that we should support the bill, then talk about the implementation later and that there may be enough models out there to follow. A supporter added that those opposed to the measure are putting the cart before the horse.

One of the NPP apparatchiks in a debate on the Ghanaian internet discussion forum, Okyeame, even suggested internet voting. He was promptly reminded by this writer to remember what happened to the voting machines in the USA with its entire technological prowess in the 2004 election? Not only that, but Ghanaians abroad resident in North America who are hooked on the internet are not even 10% of the population.

One other suggestion was that Ghanaians abroad could go to the embassies to vote in person. One wonders if we have embassies in all the countries where Ghanaians reside. For example, there is a large Ghanaian population in Norway but the nearest embassy is in Denmark and we better have embassies in Niger, Papua New Guinea, and in all the African countries because Ghanaians are all over.

It is rather surprising that the NPP government is introducing a bill to ?empower? Ghanaian diasporeans to vote. Let me state on the onset that some of us suspect that the real intent of this bill is NOT to empower those of us living abroad to vote. It is a slick method to allow for massive vote stealing. The NPP rigging machine is being set in motion and all that it may require is oiling it. This bill is the first step toward rigging. The opposition parties and civic society should oppose this fraud-laced and vote-stealing move. One wonders why of the many provisions in the constitution, FCUBE for example, is not being implemented with the same vigour and alacrity!

What about the NPP government?s lackadaisical attitude to other pertinent provisions enshrined in Chapter 6, Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana? Some of provisions therein read: ?The President shall report to Parliament at least once a year all the steps taken to ensure the realization of the policy objectives contained in this Chapter and, in particular, the realization of basic human rights, a healthy economy, the right to work, the right to good health care, and the right to education?. The NPP government?s approach to these basic rights has been nonchalant at best. We still have cash and carry in our health system, unemployment is rife, the streets children are many and I can continue listing the litany of woes Ghanaians continue to face because of the NPP government?s inaction.

My wholesale opposition to the measure is based on the on following grounds: The implementation will be chaotic and the measure is a prescription and fertile ground for stealing an election

The implementation will be chaotic Proponents and supporters of this bill draw on examples of USA, Italy and other advanced countries where their citizens vote by mail-in ballot. What they know but refuse to mention is that these countries have a system of identification for all their citizens. It is called Social Security Number or Social Insurance Number. It is an identity and it is unique for each individual. You use it to pay taxes and the tax system is fool proof. Thus they know that each of their citizens is a living human being and NOT a ghost. These countries have advanced birth and deaths registration system and hence the issue of ghost voters, if it exists at all, is negligible.

In Ghana we have not even developed our birth registration and deaths system. The Ghana government cannot even tell us the number of Ghanaians resident abroad. If after an election we are told 2 million votes were cast by Ghanaians living outside Ghana, how many of us will believe or dispute the number and on what basis do we dispute the numbers?

In Ghana, we know from census data the number of Ghanaians in each constituency in the country. Based on Demography we can easily estimate the number of eligible voters in a constituency and hence match it with the registered voters by the Electoral Commission. Thus we have 2 independent methods of determining the number of eligible voters. This scientific method of verification is conspicuously absent in the case of the Ghanaian diasporean eligible voters. We are therefore left with no choice but depend on a voters? list provided by a partisan working through our embassies and high commissions. Isn?t this a prescription for fraud and disaster? Even in the December 2004 where they were so many independent observers the EC had to reverse decisions from 3 constituencies. Don?t we think that Ghanaian Diasporeans voting in over 100 countries in the world is a prescription for disaster?

In addition these advanced countries have institutions that serve as final arbiters in election disputes and these decisions are respected by all. In the US, the Supreme Court serves as the final arbiter of disputed elections as happened in the 2000 elections between George Bush and Al Gore. True, our courts in Ghana have handled election disputes in the past. But how would they handle disputes originating from distant sites, and depending on the facts of the dispute, different jurisdictions?

Fresh in our minds is the NPP government?s parking of the Supreme Court to get a favourable ruling in the Tsatsu Tsikata and Fast Track Court ruling in 2002. Can we trust the NPP not to engage in similar legal acrobatics in the future? For starters, it is important to err on the side of caution and in this case I will want the country to err by not trusting the NPP government on this issue.

Furthermore, why should fair minded people support a bill that we know is going to cause a problem or whose implementation is going to be chaotic at best? This is not the time to engage in political adventurism or useless experimentation. In addition, one does not need to look far at the track record of the political party that is pushing this bill. Two of the most recent display of gross incompetence come to mind:

1. The controversial IFC loan (not the World Bank one but the New Jersey, USA Equipment Repair Shop) that the NPP government pushed through parliament using its majority

2. The Chinese Hair Saloon loan that they pushed through parliament.

But for the timely intervention of the Palaver newspaper and other opposition candidates the sovereign nation Ghana would have been taken to the cleaners by the international con artists and scammers. How much money have tax payers lost in chasing these 419 loans in terms of air travel, hotel accommodation, per diem for these Ghanaian officials?

These sums could have been used to provide school building blocks for primary school pupils in Ave Dakpa (VR), Hwidiem (AR) or Kumbungu (NR). Why should I then have my trust in an election to be conducted abroad by such a government? Our dear country has seen political upheavals and is located in a continent plagued with political violence. We need to safeguard our democracy and do not need any adventurism tinkering with our democracy.

The measure is a prescription and fertile ground for stealing and election The law which should be in place in Ghana is one that should enable Ghanaians abroad to register in Ghana whenever they visit and then vote during election time in Ghana. The current position which requires a 6 month residency to register and vote is unnecessary. This is where the change needs to be made.

These 'ghost votes' can account for more than 50% of the votes cast. The ghost votes brings to mind the April 2005 election in Togo where the total votes cast in Eyadema?s so called strongholds were even more than the total population of the area including infants and children. May be the NPP government has learnt a thing or two or taken a chapter from the late Daddy Gnassingbe Eyadema and son Baby Faure Eyadema?s Electoral Fraud Playbook entitled ?How to flagrantly steal an election with callous impunity?. Ghana is NOT Togo and this disguised electoral robbery bill should be opposed and stopped in its fraudulent tracks. How can we prevent 'ghost votes' accounting for more than 25-50% of the votes in an election?

The issue is not that Ghanaians abroad should not vote. Who has the number of Ghanaians abroad?from Togo through Benin, Nigeria, Gabon, Niger, Zimbabwe, South Africa? Assuming the diasporean majority were to make a difference, that is without it the NPP would have lost the election, the accusation of rigging would be convincing, whether or not the NPP rigs the elections. With the public suspicion of electoral fraud gaining currency our infant democracy may be plunged into crisis.

The following conversation I had with a professional colleague following the debate on Okyeame highlights the issue at stake.

Sallar: Sister, let us say they call you as a CPP poll watcher to Ghana embassy in New York City to come and count the votes after they have been mailed in. You go in and all of you (party representatives) check the envelopes and they are all sealed, the postage stamps are all cancelled showing they have been mailed. You take a random sample of a 100-200 envelopes and they come from different parts of the country. After counting, the results are as follows: NPP 400,000; NDC 60,000, CPP 10,000. What will be your conclusion?

Lady: I will conclude that it is free and fair and I will sign the sheet.

Sallar: What if I tell you it is rigged?

Lady: How can that be done?

Sallar : Ok let us say 3 months before the election we put a rigging machine in motion. We have all these ballot papers and we pay handsome amounts to some of our 10 NPP supporters to stuff them ensuring that all 10 do not know one another. They did and we also bought them airline tickets to travel to 20 big cities and rent cars and go to different post offices and mail these ballot papers.

Each of the 10 was assigned 5 states in the US and directed to mail in different dispersed post offices in the United States. The total cost of this operation can be less than $100,000 US. On the day of counting the party watchers like you only see the count that is seeing the END result. You did not witness how the votes got in those envelopes and who really mailed them. Thus you did not watch the process from cradle to grave.

You are only witnesses to the grave part (counting) not the birth part. Who can tell who are Ms. Akosua Manu, Mr. Komla Nunekpeku, Mr. Kwame Asante, and Mr. Alhassan Mobila who mailed their ballots from the Bronx, Atlanta,, Los Angeles, and Detroit respectively? Who knows them and who can track them? Compare this to an American who mailed his ballot from Tora Bora in Afghanistan to Jefferson County in Alabama. His identification number is unique and if he dies they know. In Ghana we don?t have a unique identifier for anybody in that is fool proof.

Lady: Waaow, Tony you these politicians how you think and think ahead !!!!!!!! Well now I see the potential for gigantic fraud.

Sallar: Thank you. I am glad you can see the potential problems.

To conclude, dare I say that corruption in Ghana has been on the ascendancy since 2001 and there is no gainsaying that inordinate ambition, greed and morbid desire to acquire wealth have been the driving force behind official actions since NPP assumed the reins of government in Ghana.

Most people were disillusioned when during the parliamentary confirmation hearings the President of Ghana, Mr. John Agyekum Kufour, did not even have the courage to withdraw the nominations of Dr. Anane and Mr. Edumadze after such egregious corruption charges were leveled and their inexplicable responses to these charges.

The ranking by Transparency International speaks volumes and it is disheartening to read such malaise about a government that came into power under the accolade of ?zero tolerance for corruption?.

Can we trust such a government to conduct free elections with its appointed personnel in charge of our embassies and high commissions abroad? I personally don?t and will not want to find out. Even the EC associating itself with the embassies abroad would lose its independence.

To protect and build on our current democratic dispensation it is crucial that all Ghanaians see our elections as free and fair. Disputed elections resulting from ghost voters orchestrated by a ruling party using votes of Ghanaians abroad will only lead to internal conflict, armed insurrection and military adventurism.

All patriotic and peace loving Ghanaians should therefore take such steps as necessary within the confines of the law to prevent the blanket passing of this bill into law.