Private legal practitioner Prof. Kwaku Asare, aka Kwaku Azar, has fired salvos at the Electoral Commission (EC) over its denial and explanation of why it prevented constituents of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) from participating in the 2020 parliamentary election.
The Electoral Commission (EC) has described as false allegations made by the president of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, that it disenfranchised the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL).
A statement issued by the EC said it followed all the legal processes in creating a constituency and never disenfranchised the people in its procedure.
“It is unfortunate that IMANI continues to peddle falsehoods and untruths about the Commission at every point and turn. His [Franklin Cudjoe’s] narrative that the Commission disenfranchised the people of SALL, now the Guan Constituency, is false. We urge the public to verify information put out by IMANI with the Commission for the truth and the facts.”
But responding to the explanation provided by the EC, the accounting professor slammed the electoral body, wondering why it is now providing excuses for why it desenfranchised the constituents in SALL.
He said the job of the EC is not to give excuses for why it failed to assign voters to a constituency for them to vote but to ensure that all qualified persons get the opportunity to vote.
He added, “You do not direct voters to refrain from voting on December 6, 2020, only to justify it in May 2024 with some correspondence from the ministry of local government creating a district in November 2020.”
Read his statement below
Your job is to ensure that all registered voters are assigned to a constituency to vote. Your job is not to make excuses as to why you have disenfranchised voters.
Why don’t you add your letter of December 6, 2020 directing voters in SALL not to take part in the parliamentary elections?
Neither the ministry of local government nor Parliament is charged with assigning voters to constituencies. It is only the EC that is so charged and in performing that task it is not subject to the direction or letters from the ministry of local government.
An attempted creation of a district late in the election season is no license for you to abdicate your responsibility to assign voters to a constituency.
You do not direct voters to refrain from voting on December 6, 2020 only to justify it in May 2024 with some correspondence from the ministry of local government creating a district in November 2020.
Accept responsibility for this cardinal sin and stop the excuses.
You failed and you must count yourselves lucky that we do not take accountability seriously.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
