NDC electoral reform proposals not borne out of Election 2020 bitterness - Afriyie Ankrah

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the Director of Elections of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has insisted that the party’s recent electoral reform proposals are not borne out of bitterness or disappointment from the 2020 general election.

He said the proposals were put together to help shape the future of elections in the country and make them better as had been done in previous years.

Mr Ankrah explained, “the NDC had observed that the Electoral Commission (EC) did not take resolutions from the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meetings seriously and, as a major stakeholder, it decided to take the initiative to evaluate the entire electoral processes owing to the prevailing circumstances”.

He maintained that what the party observed in the past at IPAC was, the decisions at the meetings were no longer taken seriously by the EC and the posturing of the Commission had been backed by law and they could do whatever it wanted and took a step back to realize IPAC no longer was the IPAC the party knew.

According to him, “the 2020 elections are a critical part, many issues went wrong, but we went beyond the 2020 elections and proposed how we can improve upon the entire electoral system and that is why we appointed technocrats to lead the processes and the 34 recommendations include 14 recommendations already put forward by a 21-member Eminent Advisory Committee of the Electoral Commission constituted in 2019".

“The committee that worked to produce the 34 recommendations of the NDC looked at previous election reform documents of the EC, best practices from within and outside Africa and interviewed some senior officers of the commission amongst others as part of its work and presented proposals to the committee.

“It looked at existing reports from the EC, international and domestic election reforms, international best practices, conducted interviews, examined data from various sources and out of that came the 34 proposals and the party will continue with its engagements with various stakeholders on the proposals and is hoping they will be accepted and actualized to make elections in Ghana better,” Mr Ankrah proffered.