A parliamentary candidate for the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) in the 2012 elections, William Dowopkor, has reiterated that electoral reforms need to be carried out immediately after the election petition.
According to him, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, has made a strong case for reforms in his evidence in-chief during hearing at the Supreme Court, contrary to an earlier position he took after the elections when the PPP petitioned him for reforms.
“I am looking at the election petition affecting the way we have organised elections in the past and in the future,” he stated on TV3’s Headlines on Saturday.
He noted that but for the election petition Ghanaians would have been shortchanged during elections while the PPP’s call for reforms would have fallen on deaf ears.
It is widely believed that the petition of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey will put the Commission on its toes in future elections in the country.
Another panelist on Headlines, Gary Nimako, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was concerned errors admitted to by Dr Afari Gyan as occurring during the December 7/8 were too much and did not augur well for elections in the country.
He said the EC allowed some persons particularly a chief to vote without verification while ordinary persons were made to vote after thorough verification.
“The law must be applied to all,” he added.
The 2012 elections were organised under new Constitutional Instruments (CIs).
Source: GhanaWeb
