Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan (left) and Dr. Laari Bimi (right) are Chairmen of EC and NCCE respectively.
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday February 11, 2011.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan has dispelled the notion that there is duplication of functions between the commission and its sister organization, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).
He said, “I see in the public education mandates of the NCCE and the EC as set out in our constitution, no duplication but complimentary functions. In this respect, the popular view that the role of the EC is to educate people on the how of elections and the role of the NCCE is to educate people on why of elections is simply wrong. There is no such division of labour.”
Dr. Afari-Gyan was speaking at a roundtable in Accra on Wednesday organized by the Institute of Economic Affair (IEC), a policy think-tank as part of the efforts to consolidate the country’s democratic process.
The event, which was under the theme “Duplication of functions between independent institutions of the constitution, with particular reference to the NCCE and the EC in their education mandate,” was attended by politicians and a host of dignitaries from the academia, civil society.
The EC Boss said the commission is mandated to educate people not only on the electoral process, but also its purpose saying “that clearly takes the education beyond the how of election.”
He said electoral or voter education has three aspects, which he termed as “publicity, know-how and value-orientation”, adding “beyond concerns relating to the general electorate, electoral education should also target specific groups for effective participation in the electoral process.”
He said for instance that security personnel must know the limits of their authority during electoral exercises while the journalists must also be conversant with the electoral system to be able to give accurate or authentic information.
Dr. Afari-Gyan said transparency, which is the hallmark of good election administration, requires much more than setting up a transparent framework for doing one’s work or doing things in the open, noting “Direct one-on-one, person-to-person, institution-to-institution dialogue, consultations and negotiation are often necessary to achieve the sort of consensus, confidence, trust and collaborative relations.”
He also made it clear that the commission will no longer pay for the services of security agencies deployed to monitor elections, saying “we have already informed the National Security Council to budget for them.”
Dr. Laari Bimi, NCCE Chairman bemoaned the situation where the practice of democracy has been reduced solely to elections, stressing that civic education should be deepened for the public to know more about their civic responsibilities.
During the open forum, Sam Okudzeto, a legal practitioner, said politicians are taking advantage of the high illiteracy rate in the country to incite sections of the public to cause chaos in the country, especially during elections.
“They attend political rallies in their numbers yet when it comes to electoral education they shy away from such important assignments,” he said.
Professor Paaku Kludze, a retired Supreme Court judge and senior fellow of IEA, who moderated the event, said duplication of functions is a wide question whose resolution encompasses different organs of government.
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