Felix Kwakye Ofosu has defended the appointment of Emelia Afi Abenyo as Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, arguing that the NDC is entitled to a fair balance in an institution he says has become dominated by people perceived to favour the opposition NPP.
The Minister of State in charge of Government Communications said the ideal situation would be an Electoral Commission free from partisan influence. However, he argued that the government had to consider the institution’s existing composition when making appointments.
Kwakye Ofosu made the argument during a discussion about the controversy surrounding Abenyo’s appointment, which the NPP has questioned because of her alleged affiliation with the governing party.
He acknowledged the importance of an independent EC but said the practical situation differed from that ideal.
“Ideally, the EC is not a partisan body. That is the ideal situation. But in reality, in practice, we know that it is, or it has become so, because of the actions of President Akufo-Addo and the NPP,” he said on TV3’s Keypoints.
He questioned whether it was fair for the NDC to trust an institution responsible for managing elections if its composition was perceived to be heavily tilted towards its political opponents.
“Is it fair to the NDC that the body that we put trust in to manage our elections is so heavily tilted in favour of our opponents?” he asked.
Kwakye Ofosu maintained that the government’s responsibility was not simply to reproduce the existing imbalance but to consider appointments that could help create a semblance of fairness.
“So if you have a commission so dominated by one party, when we operate a multiparty democracy and therefore all the other parties have a stake in the operations of the EC, I think it’s not out of place to have a semblance of balance,” he added.
He nevertheless acknowledged that the long-term goal should be to remove partisan influence from the commission, although he argued that achieving this completely was impractical under the existing constitutional arrangements.
