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As the euphoria over the removal of former Inspector General of Police Dr Dampare reverberates across National Democratic Congress (NDC) grassroots and the dissident space within the Ghana Police Service, The Inquirer’s intelligence has picked signals about an ongoing conversation to remove the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission.
By The Inquirer Intelligence
Grounds for the oncoming removal were sketchy as The Inquirer went to press, but our sources indicate that politics has more to do with the matter than verified and proven act or acts of criminality on the part of the EC Chair.
Last Saturday, on a campus of one of the universities in the country (name withheld) The Inquirer gleaned dossier is being crafted into a petition to be sent to the presidency by the first or second week of April, initiating the ouster of the Electoral Commissioner Jean Adukwei Mensa
Legal brains putting final touches to the EC’s knockout include some names and faces that had led cases at the Supreme Court in legal tangos with the defeated New Patriotic Party (NDC) administration.
Jean Adukwei Mensa, the incumbent Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, was appointed by the Akufo-Addo administration, following a case of allegations of corruption and misconduct. civil society groups against the previous CE Chair who was appointed by the NDC administration.
In 2018, Charlotte Osei, along with her deputies, Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwaa, was removed from office following a committee’s recommendations after investigating allegations of corruption and misconduct.
The petition against her, filed by concerned EC workers in 2017, accused her of unilateral decision-making and fraudulent activities, including the cancellation of a contract with Superlock Technologies Limited (STL) and authorizing a $76,000 payment to IT firm Dream Oval.
After a year-long investigation, the committee’s findings resulted in the trio’s dismissal.
In1992, the EC Chair, Justice Kingsley Nyinah, resigned officially for personal reasons, but ostensibly against what was largely seen as Executive intrusion in the electoral process.
Kingsley Nyinah was replaced by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, who lived through his tenure and saw off the NDC that appointed him in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
He would be dragged before court over an Election Petition later in 2012 and retire thereafter, paving way for another NDC appointee Charlotte Osei, who similarly would be seeing off NDC’s John Mahama in 2016.
A couple of years later, Charlotte would be removed after findings against her was checked with the Supreme Court who ruled against her, paving way for the appointment of Jean Adukwei Mensa as Chief Executive of the EC.
Before the presidential and parliamentary elections, the NDC as a political party had alleged procurement breaches against the Electoral Commission including, for instance, malfunctioning biometric verification machines.
The Inquirer could not, however, verify what issues the NDC legal team would be raising in the petition by its petitioner for the removal of the EC Chairperson.
Per the Constitution, the EC is a safe seat, unless it can be proved that the EC Chair had abused her office through misappropriation of public funds, for instance, or verified and certified electoral integrity peccadillo.
Should the NDC succeed in establishing a case against her, it would be the second time an EC in Ghana would have been removed, ahead of her safe and stable tenure.
Also under the constitutional diktats, judges and Justices are protected by the law from undue Executive interference as much as the EC Chair, Special Prosecutor, Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice as part of the checks and balances strengthening good governance principles and practice.
