EC Commissioners must step aside – Majority Leader

In the wake of the cross fire at the Electoral Commission between the Chairperson of the Commission and her two deputies, the Majority Leader is asking the three leaders to step aside until investigations into allegations and counter allegations have been done.

Only then can any of the three leaders of the Commission return, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said.

He was speaking to Joy News’ Raymond Acquah on the turf war at Ghana’s election management institution.

Even though the turf war had been raging, at least internally over the last few months, a 27-point petition pregnant with allegations of misconduct and demanding the impeachment of the Chairperson Charlotte Osei escalated the matter into the public domain.

The petition intended for the president to begin the quest for an impeachment was leaked to the media and has since been followed by counter allegations from the Chairperson on one side, with the Deputy Chairperson in charge of Finance Georgina Opoku Amankwa, as well as the Deputy Chairman in charge of Operations Sulley Amadu on the other.

The allegations range from managerial incompetencies, bad human relations, fraud and breach of procurement laws.

In the midst of the controversies, the Chairperson has sued the lawyer of the petitioners Maxwell Opoku Agyemang for defamation.

The petition has also been referred by the president to the Chief Justice who shall conduct a preliminary investigation and decide whether there is a prima facie case to continue with the impeachment of the Chairperson of the Commission.

Ahead of the investigations, the three Commissioners have been summoned by Parliament to attempt to resolve the matter amicably even while criminal investigation continue at the Economic and Organised Crime Office.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is part of the leaders of Parliament meeting the embattled Commissioners early on told Joy News it is better for the three Commissioners to step aside at least for now.

“When I contributed to the affairs of the EC in March, I said that looking at the signs on the wall I thought that the issue was salvageable, if we had people sit down with them and deal with it. But now given where we have travelled to I think we should allow an in-depth inquiry into the conduct of business at the EC,” he said.

“Given the heat that the three of them have succeeded in generating, I think it will be better if they step aside for a proper investigations to be conducted.

“Who knows at the end of the day it will be much ado about nothing and they get back to work again,” he stated.

Even though some have suggested that the three may not be able to work together again even if they are exonerated by the investigations, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu suggested that maybe they could be talked into behaving themselves.