EC�s Intent To Shore Up Its Independence Doesn�t Lie In New Logo - Dr Gyampo

Senior Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Ransford Gyampo is pleading with the Electoral Commission (EC) to invest its strength into the preparation of the 2016 election as it is the immediate agenda to execute.

According to the Political Scientist, though the 5 year Strategic Plan will help elections and elections management if there are no deviations, the EC should not concern itself on the plan but focus on the immediate task of ensuring that the 2016 elections will deliver results that will be acceptable to all irrespective of how the result will go.

Speaking about EC’s new logo on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Dr Gyampo expressed the view that the designing of a logo around a time the Commission has financial challenges and around a period where there is public clarion call for the implementation of complete proposal to electoral reform makes the decision wrong.

He stressed that the new logo as against the demand for a new electoral reform shows sometimes the tendency on the party of the Electoral Commission (EC) to trivialise issues of utmost importance to Ghanaians.

He indicated that logo is not something which brings about electoral reform in anyway, thus the branding and the 5 year strategic plan launch could have waited after the election.

In sharp disagreement with EC boss, Charlotte Osei on her interpretation that the new logo represents EC’s sovereignty and independence, Dr Ransford Gyampo chided saying EC is the creation of the state and there is nowhere the new logo gives the Commission that mandate.

“EC is one of the powerful bodies where the state created within the Constitution and so if she says EC does not represent the state authority, in my view as a Political Scientist, I think Madam Charlotte Osei goofed a bit”, he posited.

“If she had said the EC does not represent the authority of government, I understand because there is a difference between the government and the state. Government will come and government will go but the state will always be there. In other words, political parties will come and go but EC will always be there”, he stressed.

He however argued that the EC boss cannot base on the new logo to shore up the Commission’s independence and maintain people’s confidence but rather it is about the Coat of Arms emblem which she has discarded.

“The point is that if EC boss wants to shore up her independence and maintain people’s confidence, it is not about new logo; it is about the Coat of Arms because it symbolises statehood, the sovereignty and the legitimacy of the state. If you take away this emblem, then in my view, you’re cheapening the independence of the EC”, he argued.