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What did the Institute of
Economic Affairs (IEA) seek to achieve?
By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Folks, the dust being raised by the NPP’s Akufo-Addo
and his backers in pro-NPP segments of the Ghanaian
citizenry is still high in the sky. Much of what has
come from them verges on violence in Ghana if the EC
doesn’t compile a completely new voters register for
Election 2016. They are digging in, carrying their
tantrums across the country’s borders to create the
impression that by their estimation, Ghana is
sitting on a time-bomb.
I want to tell them that Ghana is as peaceful as it
needs to be and will continue to be so despite their
scare-mongering escapades. If anything at all, they
are rather sitting on the time-bomb that they have
placed under their own butts. They are not
experienced or attractive politicians to bank any
hope on, which is the cause of their apprehension
and uneasiness, if not political mischief
altogether.
Why should they continue hollering all over the
place, issuing vain threats against the EC, and
refusing to listen to reason? Why won’t they allow
the EC to complete its study of the numerous
proposals and reports received from the various
political parties and about 30 other stakeholders so
it can determine how to tackle the challenges of the
electoral process? Why are they not giving the EC
the time it needs to put things together so rough
edges can be smoothed? Why the hurry to have the EC
do their bidding? Why should any other person or
institution do anything that the EC is
constitutionally mandated to do?
Folks, as if playing into the hands of the NPP, the
Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) organized a
forum for a debate “to address issues relating to
the Voters' Register”. The NDC refused to
participate in that debate, claiming that what the
IEA was doing amounted to a usurpation of the EC’s
role. In other words, what did the IEA seek to
achieve through that debate? As would be expected,
the Executive Director of the IEA (Mrs. Jean Mensa)
condemned the NDC’s stance and was supported by the
NPP’s ventriloquist in the media (Kweku Baako). None
of my business.
Nonetheless, the debate went on between the NPP
(represented by Prof. Mike Ocquaye) and a Political
Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana (Dr.
Ransford Gyampo). We know what each said. Prof.
Ocquaye’s invitation to the international police
organization (INTERPOL) to investigate the voters
register (because its being bloated verges on
criminality) came across as an utterance in
desperation to be pooh-poohed.
Dr. Gyampo hit the nail hard to tell the NPP and its
lackeys that all the noise they are making about the
voters register is “baseless and hollow”.
In its own assessment of issues, the IEA issued a
five-point resolution, the most important of which
(to me) is quoted here:
“It was agreed that there are irregularities with
the current Voters Register. All stakeholders must
work towards a consensus position on addressing
these irregularities. The two main schools of
thought on how to resolve the problem of illegal
entries in the Register are not mutually exclusive.
This is because purging the Register will ultimately
result in a new Register, while compiling a new
Register will rely on some existing data from the
old Register. What is critical is that the final
output of this exercise must be a Voters Register
with an acceptable margin of error”. (See
http://www.myjoyonline.com/politics/2015/October-22nd/iea-calls-for-voters-register-with-acceptable-margin-of-error.php#sthash.WyfdQq0k.dpuf).
This aspect of the communique sums up everything
coming from the IEA; but it is contentious. What
does the IEA regard as an “acceptable margin of
error”? Who/what determines that “margin of error”
and who regards it as acceptable?
I see another ambivalence in the IEA’s stance: “It
was agreed largely during the debate that the
register in its current form was problematic but the
Institute maintained the parties need to find a
common ground… Purging the Register will ultimately
result in a new Register, while compiling a new
Register will rely on some existing data from the
old Register".
What should be done in “purging” the register? A new
exercise to re-register voters all over the country,
which will lead to a new voters register to supplant
the existing one? Or a renewal of the existing
register in the periodic exercises that the EC has
been carrying out over the years? And if compiling a
new register “will rely on some existing data from
the old Register”, which DATA particularly should be
used? Who determines which DATA are appropriate for
a new register or not?
Folks, do you see how the IEA is going where it
shouldn’t? I have been wondering whether this IEA is
serious at all beyond organizing the so-called
Presidential Debate that produces nothing more than
“rally ground talk” (Where is Justice Atuguba?).
As an institution primarily founded to deal with
“economic” issues, what has been the IEA’s
contribution so far? And why is it more fixated on
“política” issues instead?
I think that the indecent haste with
which the IEA has waded into the NPP’s campaign
against the existing voters register needs serious
attention. By so doing, the IEA isn’t adding value
to itself; it is fast downgrading itself. I wonder
if its “presidential Debate” for Election 2016 will
even be honoured by those repudiating it at this
juncture. Having turned its back to it, will the NDC
and its Presidential Candidate participate in that
event? I wonder!!
It is imperative for institutions such as the IEA to
be careful how they take up responsibilities that
have no direct benefit for our democracy, especially
when their manouevres threaten the integrity of
constitutional mandated institutions charged with
specific functions. In this case, the IEA clearly
over-stepped bounds and usurped the EC’s power over
the electoral process. In the end, it comes across
to me as irresponsible and irrelevant. It may not be
respected that much if seen as doing the NPP’s
bidding. Ghana’s democracy deserves better.
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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to continue the conversation.
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