[ 2017-03-15 ]

Dr Afari Gyan retired in 2015

Afari Gyan breaks silence on 2016 elections
Former Chair of the Electoral Commission, Ghana
(EC) Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan has spoken about the
2016 elections for the first time since the
exercise was conducted on December 7, 2016.

The exercise was the first to be held in the
Fourth Republic without his supervision.

Speaking on the sidelines of a
STAR-Ghana-organised event on Wednesday, March 15
to review the 2016 elections, Dr Afari Gyan did
not mince words about the success of last year’s
general elections.

“I think the elections went reasonably well,”
he stated, “I thought they would go reasonably
well.” The elections were the first to be
supervised by Dr Afari Gyan’s successor,
Charlotte Osei.

Transposition errors

Aside numerous legal tussles between the EC and
some political parties, whose presidential
candidates were initially disqualified prior to
the exercise, results were said to have been
delayed.

The delay is said to have influenced the calling
of results by the two major political parties,
ahead of the official one by the Commission.

But Dr Afari Gyan jumped to the defence of his
successor, saying: “When elections have been
done, it takes time to compile results and results
must be compiled very, very carefully.”

He told TV3’s Komla Klutse about events in The
Gambia, where Former President Yahya Jammeh
retracted an initial concession to demand a
recount of votes.

Dr Afari Gyan, who chaired the Commission for over
two decades, said the issue in The Gambia had to
do with transposition errors.

“This tells you that it is important to allow
the Electoral Commission to go over the election
results again, again and again. “We shouldn’t
rush the Commission to declare election results.
We should allow them to do a checking and
rechecking.”

Source - 3news.com

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