Former Attorney Ayikoi Otoo has expressed concerns about the emerging allegations levelled against the Electoral Commission Chair and her deputies, for which their removal is being demanded.
President John Dramani Mahama has been petitioned to remove the EC Chair Jean Mensa and her deputies Samuel Tetteh and Dr Bossman Eric Asare. The petition also demands that EC member, Dr Peter Appiahene whose appointment was met with severe criticisms over allegations of being affiliated to the ruling party at the time.
The petition signed on Monday January 27, 2025 also cited human rights breaches, incompetence, bias, and actions and inactions that have eroded public confidence in the EC as grounds for the afforementioned persons’ removal request.
The petitioner also made reference to the case of SALL (Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi), a constituency that was without a MP during the Akufo-Addo administration over electoral issues that had remained unresolved during his second term in office.
According to the petition, the constituency was purposefully disenfranchised to deny the NDC a majority in parliament, as the area has been one of its strongholds.
But former Attorney General, Otoo believes the said allegations do not meet the threshold to call for the removal of the EC Chair and her deputies. According to him, the matters raised in the petition are not “serious.”
“I have looked at it, and they do not think that they meet the very serious issues that one would want to look at when we want to remove the EC. I don’t see any of those things as very serious.”
“In your intro, you said that the things one of the deputies was alleged to have said were when he was exercising his academic freedom. You know, young men can take to doing all sorts of things, such as even experimenting with drugs. And then they grow up, they wean themselves off those things. They realize that it’s not the best. I mean, these are not things that ought to have engaged themselves. It doesn’t mean that they are forever barred from holding office or doing anything,” he said.
Furthermore, Mr. Otoo stressed that the only person capable of determining if the allegations meet the threshold for a removal of the said individual, as per the constitution, is the Chief Justice.
“It is for the CJ to determine whether it can be said to be of any weight. From where I sit, I don’t see anything weighty enough to justify their removal,” he said during JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday.
The EC has been under intense scrutiny and criticisms for at least the past two years. The electoral outfit has been accused consistently of doing the bidding of the ruling government. CSOs and other individual stakeholders have made countless reservation remarks about the commission, following some of its approaches, with many tagging its Chair Jean Mensa incompetent.
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