A Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, is questioning an order by President Akufo-Addo directing senior management of SOEs and the Electoral Commission (EC) to submit their Curriculum Vitae (CVs) for review.
Professor Gyampo argues that the EC must be allowed to operate as the independent body that the Constitution mandates it to be.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Ransford Gyampo said the Commission is protected by the 1992 Constitution to defy the President’s directive.
“The Commission is an independent commission, and it is clothed with the necessary legalities to defer orders from the executive president that attempts to undermine the independence of the Commission.”
Professor Gyampo further questioned the purpose for which the president is requesting the submission of CVs from director level and above.
“You are asking for their CVs for what? Did the president appoint those directors? Is he trying to give them an easy job? Or question the authenticity of what they have achieved? Or is he trying to question their promotion processes? These are internal matters that the Commission has internal arrangements to handle. It is not the mandate of the president to be appointing directors for the Electoral Commission. They have their own recruitment systems, and people have been promoted as directors based on meritocracy. The president is not the one to be appointing directors to the Commission, so why does he want to exert his tentacles of political ‘king-kongism’ to independent commissions?”
