President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is being criticised for appointing known members of his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to be members of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC).
The president is being particularly berated for the appointment of Dr. Peter Appiahene, who is said to be a patron of TESCON, the tertiary education branch of the NPP and the Head of Department of the Computer Science Department at the University of Energy and Natural Resources.
Some Ghanaians including a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asa Asante, have called for the cancellation of Dr. Peter Appiahene’s appointment as a member of the EC.
A viral video sighted by GhanaWeb showed Dr Appiahene praising the current government.
In the said video, the newly appointed EC commissioner was defending the record of the NPP governments against that of National Democratic Congress (NDC) governments.
“… since the inception of the Republic of Ghana, how many times have you (the NDC) been in power and how many years have we, the NPP, been in power.
“With the little time that we have been in power, Ghanaians are the best judges and they have seen the works we have done. Our brothers the NDC are people who pick and choose statements that favour them.
“… before free SHS, it was even difficult for our parents to go to church but after the implementation of the free SHS our parents are going to church and the dressing of our mothers, if you go to the Methodist Church, Wesley, has even changed,” he said in Twi.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday, March 20, 2023, swore-in three new members of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) at the Jubilee House.
The three new members of the EC, Dr. Peter Appiahene, Hajia Salima Ahmed Tijani, and Reverend Akua Ofori Boateng are expected to serve in their new roles till the end of the 2024 elections and are replacements for members of the commission who recently retired.
Watch videos of Dr Appiahene’s remarks below:
