Former President John Mahama has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) hopes to build on its experience in the 2020 elections and work towards making future elections better.
“We in the NDC have duly learned useful, if even, bitter lessons from the entire (election 2020) episode,” Mr. Mahama said.
Mr. Mahama has long held that the 2020 election was “the worst election” in the history of Ghana.
Despite his misgivings, Mr. Mahama said the NDC was ready to provide constructive inputs to prevent the shortcomings in the 2020 election from repeating themselves.
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“We are willing to engage the Electoral Commission with constructive dialogue with a view to addressing the clear shortfalls of our present electoral system and fashion out one that meets the expectation of all if we are to avoid the unfortunate incidents of 2020.”
As part of this, Mr. Mahama said the NDC had been carrying out consultations with various stakeholders with a view to improving the electoral process.
The NDC has also made 34 recommendations it hopes will be adopted to reform the country’s electoral processes.
Mr. Mahama noted that his party was looking forward “to having an opportunity with the Electoral Commission to discuss these reforms and their possible implementation.”
Mr. Mahama made the remark at a lecture, dubbed, ‘ThankGhana, Social Justice and A Sustainable Economy’, held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra.
The Electoral Commission earlier directed the party to present its reforms to the Interparty Advisory Committee (IPAC) for dialogue but later received the document.
Mr. Mahama criticised this at the time and said the commission, houses the IPAC and, can receive the proposals and present them at the next IPAC meeting for consideration.
Among the recommendations, the NDC proposed the splitting of the EC into two separate bodies namely an Office for the Regulation of Political Parties (ORPP), and an Electoral Commission by amending the Political Parties Act, 2000, Act 574.
It also recommended that the appointment of electoral commissioners be subject to parliamentary approval.
