Soberly Reflecting This EC!

Private thoughts on Charlotte and her "Charlotteers."

Since the news broke out about Mrs. Charlotte Osei, the beauty queen in charge of independent, or now supposed to be politically aligned, Electoral Commission, I have been having some deep thoughts on what truly could be amiss in that our lot-counting office of the Republic of this God blessed our homeland Ghana.

Firstly, Lottie was accused of administrative and financial malfeasance in a twenty-seven-point petition, addressed to H.E. Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

We were made aware that the petitioners were faceless, maybe ghosts, what with the high return of ghosts on the civil and public workers' pay roll.

Then Lottie was said, in her usual calm self, to have decided to respond only after the President had acknowledged receipt. But before the President could minute the petition to the attention of the Chief of Staff, the beauty came and boomed out a response to the charges levelled against her in a twenty-seven-point thesis, and constructed faces for some of her accusers by counter-accusing her deputies for gross malfeasance and unprofessional conducts, including what could be said to be petty theft.

And then the already excited Ghanaians got even more excited and charged the paraphrase of Exodus 14: 13b, 28, which reads: "These Egyptians whom you see today, you will never see them again'... As the water flowed back, it covered the chariots and charioteers of Pharaoh's whole army which had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not a single one of them escaped."

To most Ghanaians, it is like this: "This Electoral Commission we see today, we will never see it again, so that as the dust settles on the commotion there, it should cover Charlotte and her charlotteers, and take them away for good."

However, soberly reflecting on the whole issue, I plead to be the only one in opposition to the public outcry. The President and government should not touch Charlotte and her charlotteers. Rather, there should be laws that will regulate and monitor the activities of the EC to make it always put on that cloak of independence.

What motivated this opinion is that all could be a set up. So that when the Commissioner is changed under this circumstance, it may become a precedent. So, any new government or party in power will find reasons to change the Commissioner and deputies.

When that is allowed to happen, that position, enshrined in the constitution, will be up for only political appointees. Then we should not be surprised that a winning party will appoint its National Organiser as the Electoral Commissioner.

What also informed my mind that these accusations and counter-accusations could be a well thought off plan to trap the new government, even if they were all or mostly true, is the fact that the issues took place over a two-year period when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power. The question is, where were the petitioners, and why did Lottie not take any actions when "evidence" was placed on her table?

Running through the charges against the Commissioner, we read, among others, the following: That Madam Charlotte Osei held other public positions in Ghana Re Insurance and the National Commission for Civic Education while at post as Electoral Commissioner; that she arranged for a 2015 V8 Landcruiser sports utility vehicle (SUV) from the Office of the President when she became Commissioner; that her political posture nearly pushed Ghana to the precipice; that she compromised her neutrality when she claimed the Electoral Commission had been allocated a new building for use as an office complex without the approval of the Commission; that she engaged in cronyism in the award of contracts; that she unilaterally petitioned the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) on alleged misappropriation of staff endowment funds; that she unilaterally transferred district electoral officers, perceived to be pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP), to deprived areas; that she had polarised the Commission along political lines, which was evident, publicly; that she was not on talking terms with her deputies and other commissioners, promoting disunity in the Commission; that she persistently antagonised the then opposition NPP and always ignored it, but fully patronised anything NDC; that she harboured a personal vendetta against Messrs Buck Press Limited on the premise that he belongs to NPP; that she has poor human relations not befitting any leader in public space, and that she never visited any of the districts or regional offices of the Commission.

It looks to me that the authors of these charges are dyed-in-the-wool NPP activists working in the Commission. If this is the case, then why did they not rise up in 2015 and 2016 to challenge the EC publicly or in court, but wait after a new government had taken office? Would they have sent this petition to the Office of the President if H.E. John Dramani Mahama still held office?

It is strange to only single out Charlotte Osei as anti-NPP when it was obvious that Amadu Sulley, one of her deputies, had shown reasons for all to believe that he was pro-NDC before and after Charlotte took office. Are the petitioners in the Commission saying they never knew about that until now?

The whole thing smells of some umbrella, and I do not want to believe that this is one of the programmes the NDC has in store for Ghanaians to help paint the NPP black.

Madam Charlotte Osei boomed in return, and responded to each and every charge with her twenty-eight-point thesis, in response to the twenty-seven charges against her.

She went in a raging mood and charged that Amadu Sulley, one of her charlotteers, who is the Deputy Commissioner (Operations), illegally took GH¢6 million from political parties for organising primaries for them, and the same was also accused of electoral fraud by inserting ghost names in the voters' register. These, indeed, are criminal, and if found guilty, the deputy should be dealt with severely.

Charlotte also mentioned that the Deputy Commissioner F/A, Madam Georgina Amankwa, awarded an unauthorised contract of GH¢40 million. Charlotte did not stop there, but went on to expose the nakedness of about all her other deputies.

It is worth noting that both Georgina and Amadu have come out to deny any wrongdoing. Georgina is talking about acting according to convention established by the Commission, and here, we may ask whether it is right for such huge contracts to be signed for and on behalf of the Commission without the Commissioner knowing of it?

Back to the main issue bothering me here. Why is Madam Charlotte Osei also telling us all these things now? Why did she not act swiftly, prior to the General Elections, to forestall any irregularity on the part of her charlotteers, and thus demonstrate to the whole world that she was for justice and an equal electoral playing field for all?

As frivolous as some of the accusations may seem, it still behoves that the petitioners should have made their case when the tide was high and rise above waters for all to see their seriousness.

Looking at this whole issue on the other side, it looks as if someone wants to oust Madam Charlotte Osei so that he or she becomes Commissioner. It is becoming the norm that some work places will like to have their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from within the ranks, and not from outside. Charlotte was a surprised name picked from the hat at the time EC functionaries like Amadu Sulley were doing everything NDC to catch the eye of the then President.

A Joy Online news item also spoke of the side lining of Madam Georgina Amankwa, who, in 2013, took over from the EC chair apparent, Mr. Safo Kantanka, after he had retired from service. Both Georgina and Charlotte were earlier working at the National Commission for Civic Education, and the latter joined the former in the Electoral Commission in 2015.

So Amadu wanted the post badly, and so did Georgina, therefore, it is a fight to push Charlotte out.

It would be easier for anyone to accuse the NPP of replacing Charlotte Osei, since she had had tough battles, physical and by way of expression, with the then opposition, led by the NPP. In one of these, the Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police descended heavily on opposition party faithful, resulting in severe injuries, with someone losing an eye.

The fact is that by our Constitution, it is the Chief Justice who can remove the EC from office, as per Article 15 1(1), since Article 44 (2) (3) defines the Electoral Commissioner as a Justice of the Court of Appeal.

But, will all Ghanaians acknowledge that it was the Chief Justice, and not the President, who removed Charlotte Osei, and, indeed, all her charlotteers from office, no, never, what level of grossly unacceptable, unprofessional and criminal acts they performed at the Commission?

The two years, of which Charlotte Osei was in office during the NDC era, no one from the Commission petitioned anything against her, but, today, with the NPP in power, there is a long list of charges against her, which include cases of her been biased towards the ruling party when it was in opposition. What a clever way to set a trap to bait the NPP.

And Charlotte also watched on unconcerned as one of her charlotteers made illegal voter transfers, and loaded on ghost names to the Voters Register. But, today, she is also coming to inform us.

What is my recommendation to a lasting solution to this problem? I do not have any, except that for the sake of sanity in our electoral system, new laws must be enacted to change the ways of business as usual at the Commission. Meanwhile, in order not to set a bad precedent which will finally make the chair of the Electoral Commission a politically-appointed position, we should let Charlotte and her charlotteers be.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

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