Tuesday,
August 28, 2012
The ongoing bitter criticism of
the Electoral Commission for creating 45 new constituencies is nothing but an
act of empty political jingoism.
Of all the factors likely to
threaten the upcoming December 7 elections and, thereby, pose the gravest
challenge to our democracy, this creation of 45 new constituencies is the least
worrisome. I see no reason for all the
hullabaloo that those stridently criticizing the EC are causing here and there
as if the creation of new constituencies is unusual in democracies.
The EC must have already assessed
the voter population and MP-constituent ratio as part of the demographic
factors needed for its action. Again, it must have already felt the need to
improve governance for all the 25 million Ghanaians determined in the 2010
population census. More importantly, the EC must be aware of the problems and
be confident that it can handle any eventuality; hence, its action. What should
be anybody’s beef against it, then, if not only for the sake of some misplaced
political gimmicks?
There is nothing unconstitutional
about the EC’s action to warrant all the head-butting that the NPP has begun
with it. The only problem with this creation of the new constituencies is “technical,”
bordering on the inconsistencies and apparent discrepancies in the
Constitutional Instrument 73 that the EC presented to Parliament. Its attention
has been drawn to the “technical” problem and it has taken action to correct
the anomalies for the CI to be returned to Parliament for debate and
ratification.
The due process leading to the
creation of the new constituencies is being followed. What, then, warrants all
this wolf-crying by those who claim to be liberal democrats but who cannot see this
needless arm-twisting manouevre as unprofitable in any way?
Leading the group of critics is
the NPP and its bigshots, actively supported by their affiliates, be they
individuals or an identifiable institution such as the Alliance for Accountable
Governance (AFAG), which has even threatened to go on a demonstration against
the EC. Useless agitation, I call it.
So far, arguments being raised by
these critics hold no water because they are baseless and informed by nothing
but mischief and political naivety.
Had they produced any evidence to
suggest that the EC’s action amounts to gerrymandering to favour only one
political party, there may be cause for re-thinking. But they haven’t done so,
which renders their criticism a clear instance of needless paranoia. They are
only accusing the EC of being in league with the NDC to skew the electoral
process in the NDC’s favour. This kind of reasoning is not only warped but it
is also dangerous for our democracy.
None of the critics has gone
beyond citing “timing” as the main reason for their stiff-necked stance against
the EC’s actions. They have no basis for suggesting that the timing is bad or
that by this action, the EC is preparing favourable grounds for the elections
to be rigged in favour of the NDC.
After all, the 45 new
constituencies are scattered all over the country with the Ashanti Region, the
NPP’s supposed stronghold having the lion’s share—as it has done all along, it
alone having 33 constituencies while some regions (Upper East and West) have 10
or 11.
I am not surprised that the
attack on the EC is being led by the NPP, apparently because it has already positioned
itself against its main rival (the NDC) and created the impression that it is
in cahoots with the EC to rig the elections. We have heard several comments to
that effect and discounted them as a mere figment of a war-mongering mind
heavily influenced by the belligerent slogan of “All-die-be-die.”
All these agitations against the
EC are rooted in this grand agenda of the NPP to discredit the EC and the
security services in readiness for any mayhem they may resort to should the
elections not go in their favour. By persistently crying foul when there is no
need for it even, the NPP leaders and their affiliates are only conditioning
the minds of their followers to act on the strategies already laid out to
reject any unfavourable outcome of Election 2012.
The question to ask is simple: Why
is it that it is only the NPP that sees everything wrong with the EC’s action
and is, therefore, behaving as if everything being done in preparation toward
Election 2012 is calculated to ditch it?
I see in this wolf-crying nothing
but a premonition on the part of the NPP. The reality on the ground suggests
that it will not win the elections hands-down as its leaders have all along
been deceiving themselves and making their uninformed followers believe.
The NDC government might not be
able to fulfill all its 2008 electioneering campaign promises; it might also be
unable to solve all the major problems facing the country. But it doesn’t mean
that it is not a formidable force to scare the NPP stiff. Support for it is
still widespread, which doesn’t only irk but also scares the NPP.
I am tempted to guess—and rightly
too—that despite all the hollow noises of self-assurance that these NPP
followers have been making wherever they go, the going will be tough for them.
Knowing this fact, what will they not do but embark on a series of actions and
scare-mongering public pronouncements as if all hell is already breaking loose
to consume Ghanaians?
Rather surprisingly, former
President Kufuor is at the forefront of this scare-mongering episode. What is
wrong with the new constituencies being created now and the 30 that he had
created when in power?
I have said it several times
before that ex-President Kufuor does his image a world of good if he keeps his
mouth shut. But he won’t. And anytime he opens his mouth to comment on issues
that he knows very little about, he dents that personal image all the more. I
will not mince any word here.
He is in the news again for the
wrong cause. This time, he seems not to be wearing his thinking cap the right
way. His condemnation of the EC’s action as “senseless” doesn’t only question
the sanity of the 30 constituencies that his government had the EC create but it
also casts him in a very bad light as a man of poor judgement. Here is a former President who created new
constituencies in 2004 but is now complaining that the Electoral Commission is
adding 45 more constituencies to the existing 230.
Even though his former
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ayikoi Otoo, has come out to condemn
the creation of those constituencies under Kufuor’s watch, his pronouncement
hasn’t righted the wrong that he saw in that action.
Neither will any legal action by
those challenging the EC’s action serve any useful purpose. Those calling on
the Chief Justice to empanel the Supreme Court to hear their suits against the EC
are wasting everybody’s time and giving a bad account of themselves.
All of them are talking about
TIMING as if the EC isn’t already aware of it. What is their problem if the
constitutionally mandated institution (the EC) feels well-resourced and
prepared to put in place all the measures to organize and supervise nationwide free,
fair, and smooth elections as it has been doing all these years, even in the
face of the new constituencies?
Is there any evidence that these
aggrieved elements have to prove that any inclusion of the new constituencies in
the electoral process will endanger our democracy? Let them produce it for
scrutiny. Only then can we see eye-to-eye with them. Otherwise, to hell with
their empty rabble-rousing.
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