CDD-Ghana Fellow Dr John Osae-Kwapong has warned that appointing openly partisan individuals to the Electoral Commission (EC) could undermine efforts to rebuild public confidence in the institution.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, he said the appointments risk deepening concerns about an institution already struggling to regain public trust.
“So for an institution that is already struggling in the eyes of the public, you mentioned the Afrobarometer on the question of trust. I feel like this doesn’t help to restore that kind of trust, that the institution itself really needs to build back up,” he said.
His comments follow President John Mahama’s swearing-in of two new EC deputy chairpersons on Monday, October 12. The appointees are Dr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah and Emelia Afi Agbenyo.
They replace Dr Bossman Eric Asare, who resigned, and Samuel Tettey, who retired.
At the swearing-in ceremony, President Mahama urged the new deputy chairpersons to strengthen public confidence in the Commission through impartiality, transparency and accountability.
NDC and NPP accused of repeating the same pattern
Dr Osae-Kwapong said the controversy reflects a recurring pattern in which both major political parties have had opportunities to address concerns about partisan appointments to independent institutions but have failed to break the cycle.
“Both parties – NDC and NPP – have had opportunities to express a view about openly partisan persons being appointed to certain institutions, but we see this cycle being repeated, through the rotation and election turnovers,” he said.
He argued that changes in government had not ended the practice, warning that it could reinforce the perception that political parties seek to fill independent constitutional bodies with their supporters whenever they assume power.
He illustrated the concern by recounting a conversation with a politically partisan friend earlier that day.
“Her response to me was that this tells us that whenever we have the chance, we should pack independent Constitutional bodies with partisans,” he recounted.
For Dr Osae-Kwapong, such attitudes highlight the need for meaningful institutional reforms to prevent the cycle from continuing and address concerns about political influence over independent bodies.
Public perception and institutional independence
The CDD-Ghana Fellow also distinguished between an appointee’s private political preferences and publicly known party affiliations.
He noted that individuals may privately support political parties without necessarily compromising their ability to serve impartially.
However, he argued that appointing people with openly known partisan affiliations to independent institutions can intensify public concerns, particularly when those institutions are already facing questions about their credibility.
His central concern, he stressed, is the EC’s need to rebuild public confidence in its independence and impartiality.
Appointments that raise further questions about the Commission’s political neutrality, he argued, risk undermining that effort rather than strengthening public trust.
