Disrespecting the Electoral Commission by political opportunists is a great disservice to the nation

If there is one government agency that has suffered humiliation, sustained and relentless vilification and scorn, it is none other than the Electoral Commission.

Here is a quote from the virulently anti-Electoral Commission group, the LET MY VOTE COUNT ALLIANCE:

“The Electoral Commission has constantly maintained a deceptive posture. The 56,000 names were cooked up by the Commission. They never existed on the electoral register.” LMVCA

That quote unambiguously casts doubts on the integrity of the EC and exemplifies the disdain and contempt the group and others like it hold for the Commission.

The EC created by an act of parliament and funded largely by the Ghanaian tax payer is charged with conducting free and fair elections in the country.

But it is constantly under intense scrutiny by pro opposition groups, and of late, has come under withering criticism by the country’s highest court, the Supreme Court.

And as if that was not enough, the Electoral Commission’s methodologies have been questioned, its mission doubted and its credibility dragged into the mud.

It has been accused variously of lack of transparency, deceit and fraud and dragged to court by individual Ghanaians with an ulterior motive.

Through it all the Electoral Commission has stayed steadfast to its mandated mission, never once wavering and vowing that despite the obvious distractions, it will make sure that Ghanaians vote fair and free and that their votes will count.

There is a certain truism in politics; if you are dead-set/determined on bringing down a state institution, tarnishing its image and ruining its reputation, your best strategy is to mount sustained verbal attacks on the institution or agency.

British conservatives attacks on the EU….did not just begin months before the country voted in a referendum to exit from the Union.

The assault on the integrity and goals of the EU began in earnest 40 years ago when Britain joined the Union and lasted long enough to discredit it to British voters. EU workers were called stiff and unimportant bureaucrats by the likes of Nigel Farage and the irrepressible Boris Johnson.

You can see the parallels, the alarming similarities between what the British conservatives did to the EU and what the desperate bands of pro-opposition groups are doing to the EC and its much maligned head, Charlotte Osei who has been called all kinds of unsavory names under the sun.

The assaults on the EC are deliberate, calculated and an elaborately woven strategy designed by the LMVCA and others to reach political nirvana, attain their objectives and advance their political agenda.

Their true intention is to beat the EC to the ground and render it ineffective in performing its mandated duties, thereby making it an easy target for abuse and unruly protests should the results of the elections not go their way.

The EC is operating in an unfriendly environment, flanked by hostile forces many of them funded by wealthy opposition politicians.

Progressive Ghanaians need to speak up against the abuse and humiliation that is being heaped on the state agency. Standing aloof while the agency is being savaged by political opportunists does a great disservice to all of us and threatens our democracy.

I think it is absolutely important to state this ugly fact. There are some in our midst who will stop at nothing to stain our hard-earned international reputation as a bastion of peace in a region that has been the epicenter of political violence.

Ghana is widely known and respected for its political stability and we must all pool our resources, political capital and all, to maintain the stability we have enjoyed in the last 24 years.