Joyce Bawah Mogtari, says she expects Jean Mensa, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, to resign. Joyce is the special aide to President-Elect John Dramani Mahama.
She cited incompetence and partisanship in the Commission’s handling of the recent elections. She said the current commission is heavily partisan and needs a complete reset to restore integrity and credibility.
Speaking on Channel One Television, Joyce Bawah Mogtari said the violence recorded in the just-ended 2024 election which was won decisively by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is to be blamed squarely on the Commission’s delay in releasing official results.
“I was thinking that the EC chairperson was going to resign yesterday. Look, my brother, they’ve been incompetent, to say the least. There’s been too many partisans there, the arm twisting. When the will of the people is up against you, there is nothing you can do. One of the reasons we have these pockets of violence is because it took too long for the EC to declare the results, they counted the presidential, and by the time we all went to bed, we knew, the main vanquish had actually thrown in the towel, what were they [EC] waiting for?”
“…Look at the cost of the ballot sheets that have been destroyed, burnt because of mistakes, elementary mistakes. Thank God for our technical team, they did a yeoman’s job to put the EC in check.”
Asked if the EC chair (Jean Mensa), should resign, Joyce said: “I think that she should. [If I were] in her place, I would have [resigned]. Like she said, it is finished. It should be finished for her [Jean] as well.”
“I was thinking that the EC Chairperson was going to resign yesterday. Yes, absolutely… They have been incompetent, to say the least. There are too many partisans there. The arm twisting. When the will of the people is up against you, there is nothing you can do,” Joyce Bawah Mogtari stated. “If there were elementary breaches, then she has no business being there, if you ask me and I personally think, from a very professional perspective, that everything to do with the EC, needs a complete reform and hopefully it will form part of the constitutional amendment process” John Mahama will undertake, she added.
Mogtari emphasised the need for a complete overhaul of the EC to restore public trust and ensure the integrity of future elections. She said the John Mahama administration will prioritize comprehensive reforms at the Electoral Commission.
“Everything to do with the EC needs a complete reform,” she noted.
