Posted on:
www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Saturday,
November 12, 2016
One of the elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said
Charlotte Osei, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), will be
taking an illegal action if she goes ahead to recount the presidential ballot
as she hinted recently.
Prof Mike Aaron Oquaye, a lawyer and former Deputy Speaker of
Parliament, said the rules do not give the EC boss, who is the returning
officer for the presidential election, the power to take such an action.
On her visit to London, UK last week, Mrs Charlotte Osei told BBC ‘Focus
on Africa’ that she might consider a total recount of the presidential results
on December 7 if it happens that during the collation the vote margin “is too
close to declare a clear winner.”
She said if that happened, it might be prudent to recount the ballot
papers instead of going ahead to declare a winner.
“We are hoping within 48 hours, maximum 72 hours, we should have the
results,” she told Akwasi Sarpong, host of the programme, adding, “The only
reason I can see us going beyond is that our elections in Ghana tend to be very
close. If it’s so close, it may be more prudent to stop, inform every one, do a
total recount, and be sure of what we are announcing…just to be sure, but I do
not think, well at this point it is too early to tell.”
Reacting, Prof. Oquaye, who is currently the NPP Chairman of the
Legal and Constitutional Committee, told Joy FM yesterday that if the EC boss
goes ahead to do the recount, it will amount to a lawless act and advised Mrs
Osei to tread cautiously.
“The conduct of the election shall be regulated by law and the EC
cannot operate outside the parameters of the law, otherwise it would be a
recipe for constitutional crisis,” he said.
He said the EC can be inviting what he called ‘needless’ lawsuits if
it goes ahead with that decision.
He said the C.I. 94 of 2016 - the constitutional instrument that
will be used to regulate the general election - has clearly prescribed the
conditions under which ballot papers could be recounted and also states clearly
the persons who are entitled to call for the recount, adding, “A careful
reading shows that the commission is not one of them.”
“C.I. 94 Regulation 38 sub-regulation (4) says the candidate himself
or a representative may ask for a recount of the ballot papers at a polling
station. A second recount could be demanded if the candidate is dissatisfied
with the first count.”
Prof. Oquaye said the second recount could be done after the
Returning Officer has ‘sanctioned’ it, and it would be done at the Constituency
Collation Centre.
“The EC boss cannot by herself recount the ballot else it would be
an act of illegality," he said, pointing out that the essence of the C.I.
94 “is to guard against actions that would not protect the integrity of the
elections.”
But the EC boss insists that the recount will go ahead if the
results are too close to call, claiming that
the commission will use its discretionary power to do the recount.
“In managing election, international best practices suggest that if
the results are too close you take your time and make sure it is right. All we
are saying is that it is better to be sure than to be sorry,” she told
journalists on Thursday at a forum orgainsed by the Editors Forum Ghana,
chaired by veteran journalist, Ajoa Yeboah-Afari.
Later, a policy advisor of the Progressive People's Party (PPP),
Kofi Asamoah, cautioned the commission to be cautious in the way it is handling
processes of the December 7 polls.
"Everything that the EC wants to do must be backed by
regulations passed by parliament and what the Constitution says. First of all,
we don't have a definition of closeness. The EC must not exercise a
discretionary power it does not have,” Mr Asamoah charged.
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