The Commission currently has no chairperson and even deputies following President Nana Akufo-Addo’s dismissal of Charlotte Osei and her two deputies Amadu Sulley and Georgina Amankwah on June 28 on grounds of “stated misbehaviour and incompetence”.

The General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, is of the view that the removal of Mrs Osei was in bad taste and what matters by way of succession is for the democracy of the country to be safeguarded.

“Whatever the current government has done with the EC is wrong, we are not scared about whoever is going to be in charge of the Electoral Commission as long as it preserves our democracy and our democratic institution,” he said.

The NDC and other civil society groups have since been on the defense of the dismissed commissioners, whose situation they describe as witch-hunting.

Mr Nketia explained that being on the defense of the beleaguered former commissioners is not because of personal interests but for the overall protection of the 1992 Constitution.

“The battle we are fighting is not a battle to protect the person of Charlotte Osei or Amadu Sulley or anybody, we are fighting to protect the integrity and independence of an election administration body which has been designed by the constitution to be independent.

“The constitution has been structured to secure the independence of the Electoral Commission to be able to discharge on their core mandate and their core mandate is to organise free and fair elections and have the courage to declare the results irrespective of who wins or who loses.

“The NDC is worried that we have constitutional democratic institutions that are supposed to be strengthened to perform their works but the government is doing everything to subject them to political dictates and that is wrong.”

“The president has a discretion in whatever that is going on at the Electoral Commission because the removal of the EC chairperson and her two deputies is a campaign promise made by the New Patriotic Party.

“If the Public Procurement Act is the basis for Independent Electoral Commission officials to be removed, then nobody is safe in this country,” Mr Nketia cautioned. -3news.com