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Johnson Asiedu Nketia is General Secretary of the NDC
The Secretary General of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has declared the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections to be the worst elections in the history of the Fourth Republic.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday August 24, Asiedu Nketia said: “It is common knowledge that all is not well with our elections in Ghana.
“It all started in 1992, some have found solutions during the elections since 1992.
“We thought we were making progress because each election was an improvement over the previous election until 2020 comes along and you will stand with me that the 2020 election was one of the worst elections we have had in the 4th republic.
“We have done our part as a country to resolve some of the issues. We have let the world know that we agree to work with the results of legal proceedings not because we believe there has been justice.
“But we think we have to save democracy and improve what we have.”
The NDC has proposed a number of electoral reforms for the elections in Ghana.
Mr. Asiedu Nketia said the reform proposals, as well as any additional reform proposals that may be submitted, are intended to be used to undertake an impartial and open discussion and review of the operations of the Election Commission.
“They aim to contribute to a national conversation on electoral reforms in the context of critical and persistent discontent among parties with the electoral process (NB: all previous and current ECs have come under attack intense on the part of political parties during the period).
“We hope that the Government will take the necessary steps to operationalize in particular the 3 flagship recommendations of the reform of part A of our Proposals as well as the recommendations of the Constitutional Reform Commission.
“We also hope that you, the media, will disseminate these reform proposals as widely as possible to enable as many men and women as possible in our country to participate in the national conversation.”
Among the reform proposals are;
• The silence of reform proposals on the issue of the growing “monetization” of electoral politics in Ghana is deafening.
• The proposed Office of the Regulator of Political Parties (ORPP) should be rebranded as the “Multiparty Commission for Democracy (MPDC) with an expanded mandate to tackle pathologies of the political system and monitor the health of Ghanaian democracy, especially in periods between the elections.
• The proposed name of the ORPP should be changed to “Commission for the Regulation of Political Parties” (PPRC).
• There should be a cap on the funding of political parties for election campaigns.
• NDC’s engagement with stakeholders should be broadened into a “National Consultation on Electoral Reforms”.
• The composition of the EC should be technocratic rather than political, with member positions advertised, candidates interviewed and most appropriate persons appointed.
• There should be criteria to eliminate registered but inactive and moribund political parties and political parties that do not appear serious from the electoral process and membership in IPAC.
• Proposed Election Arbitration Committees (EACs) should be given time to complete their work.
• The NDC should remain confident in the Ghanaians and implement its reform proposals when it finds itself in government and the proposals have not been implemented by then.
• The NDC may wish to gain support from other political parties before proposals are presented at an EC or IPAC meeting.
• Under no circumstances should the army be deployed in civil elections.
• The IPAC Legal and Technical Sub-Committees should be relaunched when IPAC is restructured and becomes fully functional.
• If formal legislative support for IPAC proves difficult, one or more MPs should sponsor a private member’s bill to that effect.
• There should be a mechanism to reduce the incidence of “invalid votes” during elections.
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