Yaw Baah and Dr. Afari Gyan
IT HAS now emerged that the decision to exclude Ghanaian journalists from the early voting ahead of the December 7 general elections was deliberately done by the Electoral Commission (EC) and government’s principal legal adviser.
Vice Chairman of the Subsidiary legislation Committee of Parliament, Yaw Baah, indicated that the EC and the Attorney-General purposely excluded journalists from the early vote so the media would not have enough time to go around the country to effectively report on this year’s elections.
His apprehension was premised on the fact that previous the Constitutional Instrument (CI 15) which governed elections in the country from 1996 had a provision that gave the EC chairman the discretion to include the media and other organisations in the early voting process.
This concession had enabled members of the media to move to various parts of the country before December 7 to effectively report on the voting process on the day of elections.
However, in drafting the new rules and regulations, CI 75, for this year’s elections, this discretionary power to the EC chairman was taken away, leaving Ghanaian journalists in a limbo.
Speaking to Peace FM’s programme Kokrokoo on Friday, Mr Baah, disclosed that the parliamentary committee, which considered the instrument, had no hand in the omission of journalists from the special voting package.
He explained that the EC drafted the CI 75 in accordance with its constitutional mandate on the advice of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.
Hon. Baah, the MP for Kumawu, in the Ashanti region, pointed out it was the duty of the EC to include journalists in the early voting as the Subsidiary legislation Committee had no power to do so.
He pointed out that per a Supreme Court ruling, Parliament had no power to amend provisions of instruments brought before it by any state agency, ministry or department, stating that it was the responsibility of the EC to withdraw CI 75 and include the media in the early voting if the omission was not deliberately done.
Earlier, the host of Krokrokoo, Kwami Sefa Kayi, registered his displeasure about the conduct of the EC when he spoke to the Commission’s acting Public Relations Officer, Christian Owusu-Parry.
The radio presenter did not hide his suspicion that the EC deliberately excluded the media from the early voting.
Attempts by the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) for the EC to reconsider its position on the media proved futile as Dr. Afari-Gyan had already indicated there was nothing he could do to reverse the situation.
Contributing to the early voting brouhaha on the same programme, Egbert Faibile, a lawyer and newspaper publisher, indicated that not even the Chairman of the EC could decide who should do early voting.
According to him, the provisions of the CI 75 stipulated that any voter who wanted to take advantage of the early voting would apply for the opportunity.
Mr Faibile however regretted that the EC was not proactive enough in educating the general public to take advantage of the provision within the stipulated period of 42 days to the general elections.
“Under the circumstance, if Afari-Gyan allows anybody apart from security services and presiding officers to vote, it would be challenged in court,” he cautioned.
CI 46, which interprets the CI 75, had listed only security agencies and EC’s presiding officers as the only special people who could take advantage of the early voting.
That, Mr Faibile noted, was in contravention of CI 75 which clearly stipulated that any voter could apply for early voting and not just security and EC presiding officers.
By Awudu Mahama