Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, says questions surrounding the neutrality of newly-appointed Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Peter Appiahene, are borne out of the quest to jealously safeguard the Commission and its work.

On Monday, President Akufo-Addo swore in Dr. Peter Appiahene, Salima Ahmed Tijani and Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng as new members of the commission.

Pictures and videos have since gone viral alleging in particular that Dr. Peter Appiahene is a patron of the NPP’s tertiary institutions’ wing, TESCON, at the University of Energy and Natural Resources.

While the National Organiser of the NPP, Henry Nana Boakye, has denied the allegation, Dr. Asah-Asante said the mere affiliation of the Electoral Commissioner to the NPP puts his neutrality to question.

He explained that the neutrality of the members of the Electoral Commission is integral to engendering public trust in the EC’s work.

He said, any show of partisanship from any member of the EC could be inimical to the EC’s role as political referee and that could endanger the country’s democracy.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said, “What we’re saying is that we want to jealously safeguard the electoral commission and its work and that is why it is incumbent on all the political actors to make sure that the people that we put there, they are people that the whole country accepts as neutrals so that what they do there, at the end of the day what comes out as product of that election process will be accepted by all.

“Because any doubt, any misgivings, anything that raises eyebrows will compromise the system and it creates a lot of problems. We have seen it in Africa, Latin America and a lot of places and that is why those who are saying – they’re not per se looking at the person and attacking his persona and all that no, but they want to be sure that the person who’s going to be put on this all important body is worth his salt and that he will be able to deliver as is required of the laws and the procedures and norms associated with the workings of that [body] that is all.

“It’s not that people doubt his competence; there is no doubt about that. He has gone through the mill and that he’s fully developed and he has what it takes to discharge his duty as an officer of the commission, no doubt about that. But we’re talking about anything that will undermine the process and that comes from what? Being partisan and that is where the problem is,” he said.