The Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has attributed the disruptions during Tuesday’s assembly and unit committee elections in some voting centers across the country to the inadequate leadership skills of Ghana’s Electoral Commissioner (EC).
In an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Gbande expressed the NDC’s close scrutiny of the election processes to prevent the recurrence of electoral mistakes in the upcoming 2024 general elections.
“We are very interested, and we have been very much interested in the activities of this election because it has a bearing on the next elections that will be organized. So, we followed keenly as far as the district assembly elections are concerned.”
“The situation that we find ourselves in as a nation is largely because we have an electoral commissioner who does not believe in consensus building and does not want to learn. We would have avoided this situation if she had engaged stakeholders and had been willing to do what was right.”
Mr Gbande emphasized that the nation’s current situation is primarily due to having an electoral commissioner who lacks belief in consensus building and is unwilling to learn.
He suggested that the challenges could have been avoided through engagement with stakeholders and a commitment to doing what is right.
He further warned that if the electoral commissioner does not improve her leadership skills, the 2024 elections may face negative consequences.
“What is more shocking is that six hours before the election, the commissioner did not envisage that inventory might not have reached the centers, and she did not even check to ensure that they were in order. This clearly tells us that we are dealing with Jean Mensa, who is largely incompetent and has demonstrated low experience in terms of elections management. It is dangerous going into 2024, particularly if the same personality is still going to be our electoral commissioner.”