General News of Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Source: Starrfmonline.com
Outspoken New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Adansi Asokwa K.T Hammond is leading a campaign to force officials at the Electoral Commission including its celebrated chairman Kwadwo Afari Gyan to resign for causing financial loss to the state.
He described the EC boss and his deputies as “tin gods” who have “arrogantly” breached the constitution leading to the cancellation of the district assembly elections by the Supreme Court.
The local polls were scheduled to come off March 3, but following an unlawful dismissal of a fisherman from the contest, the highest court of the land stopped the polls because the exercise had no proper regulation backing it.
Speaking to Citi FM’s Richard Dela Sky, Tuesday, an incensed Hammond said: “Heads must roll and there must be resignations.”
He added: “I think the constitution provides an iron cloud over them and they have become tin gods.”
According to him, the Attorney General must be spared any public flak after about Gh¢317 million was spent on the botched local polls. “How come these people are paid and the buck stops with them,” the MP added.
Meanwhile, the EC is requesting an additional Gh¢ 90 million to run the District Assembly elections. Government released a total of Gh¢ 327 million to the electoral body to run the polls, but the whopping sum has gone down the drain after the Supreme Court canceled the local elections.
A 7-member panel of Justices on Friday February 27, 2015, in a unanimous decision said the elections were unconstitutional.
Parliament summoned the EC boss Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan on Tuesday to explain what went wrong.
During the closed-door session it came to light that the EC needs close to Gh¢ 100 million to go ahead with the local polls once it satisfies all constitutional requirements.