Don’t be confrontational to our electoral reform proposals – Alex Segbefia

The Head of the International Relations Desk of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Alex Segbefia, has asked the Electoral Commission (EC) to take the recommendations made by its party seriously.

Mr. Segbefia believes the recommendations made by his party will help reform the country’s electoral system.

The opposition party at a press conference on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, made some proposals for reforms in the country’s electoral system.

Key among the suggestions from the party is that the appointment of electoral commissioners must be made with prior approval of Parliament.

The party insisted that the current mode of appointments makes the EC appear partisan.

The NDC said the recommendations were informed by perceived flaws in the 2020 election, which warranted a presidential election petition after John Mahama rejected President Akufo-Addo’s election victory.

They subsequently tried presenting the proposals to the Electoral Commission but the Jean Mensa-led Commission however directed the party to table its proposed electoral reforms before the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) for dialogue.

But Mr. Segbefia, speaking on Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday, August 28, 2021, urged the EC not to take an entrenched position but rather consider the recommendations seriously.

“As for me, my first issue is that they (EC) should consider our recommendations seriously regardless of whether the NDC is at the table or not. If the recommendations are good for Ghana, they should implement them and stop being confrontational, after all, NDC isn’t the only party at IPAC. We have so many parties at IPAC, so the EC should have tabled our proposals so we all look at it collectively.”

“We have also been to a lot of places where the content of the recommendations hasn’t been challenged. The content of most of the issues have been accepted as very useful documents and a lot to learn from because actually most of them are not new.”