Exclusive with Fmr. EC Chairperson Charlotte Osei - AM Talk on Joy News (18-8-21)

[Music] but right now though we're crossing over to studio 997 where the host of the super morning show sit down and have an exclusive interview with charlotte jose former chairperson of the electoral commission right and it was so real we knew it was an exercise but it was so real you know and they put you against the wall stand up lie down do this do that after the exercise i was like hell no this is this is i wasn't born for this you were scared you wanted to probably stop not scared enough to stop but it i think it just brought me the the the fears it brought it really close so that bothered me talking about the fears was there any time that i mean i mean this was a mock exercise you had to go through but did it i mean did you in reality come across that apart from the mock exercise you went through no i know there was one day we were coming back from the office and my office was a good 45 minutes drive from the un compound so it's always cause for a little apprehension and anxiety even though you're going in armored vehicles you should always be like a convoy and they always know where you are at any time there's a lot of security protocols but coming back one day just okay so the un compound is on the left side of the road and we're coming on the right side so you have to go and do a u-turn so across on the side we were on on the right side just from nowhere we saw like a group of about 20 young people um all holding ak-47 they looked very scary so i was like what's going on and the driver was because i didn't see that driver reaction in any way i didn't see him redoing and he was like oh this is like a local gang and i was like and they are so armed and he said yes and so they are walking in front of the car so you don't know if they are going to stop us and i'm like well in my mind i'm thinking well we're close to the u.n compound so we can get reinforcements yes and um so they just spotted and we drove through but there were like at least 10 seconds there that was like heart pounding like is this a taliban threat like is this the day they get us still okay so let's look at the job itself i mean you were there as part of a group of advisers uh you know taxed with uh helping the electoral commissioners yes commissioners you know in the conduct of uh the elections let's look at what you did in organizing that 2019 elections no so i was a com an international commissioner with the electoral complaints commission so there are two election management bodies in afghanistan there's the independent like independent electoral commission the iec and then there's the ecc so they put two international commissioners on each of the commissions to support the afghan commissioners so the mandate of the electoral complaints commission where i was was that throughout the electoral cycle so if someone had issues with registration for instance they could file a complaint and then we would bring the iecnc this is the person's complaint this is the evidence maybe why were they not allowed to register or maybe registration didn't go smoothly um in their area so um so you do that through registration through the candidates nomination process so any decisions taken by the iec that affects either a candidate or a voter they file the complaints and the ecc adjudicates over those complaints so it required working with the iac and in a certain way also supervising aspects of the iec's work so um normally when there's an electoral activity going to happen we would announce the dates in the process for receiving complaints then we set up a procedure for going through the complaints so there was a whole structure people who would go through the complaints assess it make their notes and then it travels up to the commissioners and then we have to sit and give a decision and serve that decision on the iec and the iec has a duty to comply with the decision so if the ic does not the the complainant also has the right to come back to us and um let us know that the iec did not comply and then we can instances the iec didn't comply there were times when they were a bit slow and we had to go in what were their concerns oh i can't i mean it's it's varied it's right here okay so let's look at one of two things i mean we know what's happening in afghanistan now but while you were there was there any time you felt afghanistan was not ready for the elections was any time you thought of probably you know postponing elections to a later date oh yes there were long long meetings and discussions between the iec the ecc the international community just trying to decide whether the security situation was was um stable enough to permit elections the talibans had made it clear that they were not for the elections and some of the complaints we received was that in prior elections people had made allegations that post voting if you were seen with the voting mark fingers were cut off by the talibans and all that we were also concerned whether polling stations would be safe in some areas because remember that even as a 2019 there were areas that were controlled by the talibans sometimes [Music] when our staff like our district heads came to head office for meetings they would complain to us about the security situation talibans were overrunning their districts talibans had set up roadblocks so those concerns were always there and 2019 before we had the elections remember that the trump administration had also started direct engagements with the talibans [Music] they had signed a deal with the taliban that they were going to withdraw troops it was not clear when and there was i remember there was a certain period where the government was not even at the negotiations table so we didn't know what was happening and so there was pressure from the government side go ahead with the elections because they felt they needed the legitimacy to be able to join the negotiations if there were an elected government and negotiate on behalf of the afghan people but up until that time it was between the trump administration and the talibans government was excluded so there was pressure from that side to go ahead from the political side to go ahead with the elections and we were concerned about the people was was it safe enough for them to to actually set up polling stations enough for them to have the elections my honest personal view no i i was quite worried that people would be sent out and they would um they'll be harmed but you're part of the team so the team wanted elections to go ahead um um the iec certainly wanted the elections i'm sure i think that ecc there was i didn't get a sense that there was any position some people felt it should go on some people felt it shouldn't go on so we had all these meetings where everybody would voice their um concerns and their perspectives and a lot depended on security reports that we were all receiving and we were not in control of so the decision was taken to go ahead with it i guess this morning madame charlotte jose who's joining us right here on the super morning should we have a conversation about her time in elektra i mean at the time afghanistan yeah we'll come to the electoral commission briefly oh is that on the menu okay i'm still thinking about it okay i'll let you know shortly but her time as part of a u.n team of electoral commissioners to help organize elections in afghanistan we're trying to understand what the situation was in afghanistan and lessons that we can learn so when you look back i mean when you look back you've talked about taliban we'll get to i mean the lesson shortly so what how important was taliban in all of this i mean why did their decision not to support elections matter to you it mattered because there was a war going on and the talibans were fighting the government and fighting the the um international community that was in afghanistan to support the government and the the the talibans are part of the largest ethnic group and they were spreading and they were getting more powerful so it mattered because they could intimidate they could create situations of insecurity and so you don't put people out to go and vote when you know that going to vote may result in loss of life or harm so that was important but um you know in all this we can't forget that it's really all about the people whether it's political parties whether it is whatever the actions should are supposed to better the lives of the people and so you don't want to take decisions that put the people in a place of harm how does it feel knowing that post-election taliban is taking over the country elected president fled out of afghanistan on a certain level it's very surreal it's very surreal i was speaking to one of my friends who was still there yesterday and i was asking he's still on the u.n compound and he said oh we're being guarded internally we always had the gurkhas guiding us internally he said we're being guarded internally and externally by the taliban and it was very funny the taliban said that yes it's just funny on a certain level because all the training they give you is to protect you from the taliban it's to keep you really far from them and now they're the ones who are protecting the u.n compound so it's surreal but um on a certain level as well i'm not sure it's unexpected i think um if you read the history of afghanistan and it's a very complex history i can't pretend to have read all of it or most of it and if you listen to the stories in afghanistan from the ordinary people the talibans were always very clear they said the americans had the watch and they had the time the americans had the watch in other words they knew that at some point they would get tired and they will leave they were in for the long haul and they were they've improved right they've improved right because now they've taken over more like you you foresaw a thing like this happening while you were there i can't say that but there were always concerns just watching the players there were concerns you've talked about security situation and all and we've seen lots of politicians running away from afghanistan i mean we've seen the elected president one who had indicated earlier that he was going to stay in afghanistan running away from afghanistan you've talked about security situation let's look at you know the people of afghanistan once you are in there to organize elections you may have heard the sentiments the concerns that they had in there whenever you had a chance speaking to some of your colleagues who are afghans what did they tell you were their concerns particularly the regime um okay so first of all the the life of a u.n commissioner in afghanistan is very restricted you cannot even roll down your your car windows in traffic to buy anything or to speak to anyone um there were so many times afghan colleagues and afghans are the most hospitable incredibly sweet incredibly generous kind people really yes and they would want you come home more than ghanaians yes come home and you could not go home because the security protocols just would not let you do that they would have to if an afghan colleague wanted me to come for dinner they would have to give advanced notice u.n security would have to go to their house check it out and there were even times that they would tell us you cannot go to the office this week or we have to do this we have to build another bunker so it was a very um security system and for good measure so in terms of engagement with ordinary afghans i just want to create the context it's very limited but i would speak to the lady who cleans my rest accommodation i will the drivers i'll speak to the the people at work i had a group of young daughters in the office young ladies in their 20s and every day after lunch because afghan colleagues you must they'll be very upset if you don't so 12 30 you'll go for lunch and by 1 30 when we come back to the office this young ladies will be waiting for me and that's where we used to engage and talk about life and this one will say i'm getting married and i'll be like i want to meet the guy you're marrying me kandahar boy no no no i want to see him first and that kind of thing so there was that little community so my my perspectives of what the ordinary people want are from that community and you know the average afghan wants what the average kenyan wants he wants a peaceful life he wants the opportunity to earn a living you want your children to go to school have a good education you want them to get jobs and be independent when they finish school you want good health care you want access to health access to education the same things we want you want to be able to go out and have a nice day with your family and friends and get back home safely so that's what they want and um it's not exactly what they were getting and so when you talk to them i'll give you two examples um there was one time there was a a bomb blast i can't remember who took responsibility for that at a wedding and a couple of days later in the office i was talking to one of the drivers and he was saying another driver's brother had been involved had been at that wedding and was injured and he now told me a story about a young boy who was about seven who had been at the wedding with his father and had gone up to his father and said he wanted some candies and you know he wanted money to get him by the candies and the father was like no i'm not going to buy you any sweets today and the boy put his hand into his father's pocket you know those they are robes to take out money to gain but you know how kids are to get by candies and at that very moment the explosion happened so the father was unconscious and when he woke up in hospital because his first thought was my son so he kept asking where is his son and as they are taking the ropes you know cutting the ropes off him to give him treatment his son's severed hand is taken out of um his ropes those stories keep you up awake at night there was another time that um a security installation was bombed and there was a school by it and there were two siblings a brother and a sister who were killed in the in that blast and the story later that came out was that the young boy had had his seventh or eighth birthday the night before so there was a little celebration at home so the following day mom wakes him up to go to school and he's like no he doesn't want to go to school you know kids he's tired i don't want to go to that i don't want to go no you have to go so he goes off with his sister and that's the last time the parents saw their children alive so that's not what any parent wants that's not what any citizen wants and you could in when we had meetings with the political elite you could see a total disconnect when you talk to the people they just did not feel that the political elites cared okay and those ones were doing the usual fighting turf fighting for their positions and whatever and the people were getting increasingly disillusioned and so i remember there were times when i was speaking to one of the drivers and he said you know some of the youths who have joined the taliban when it's time for eid they come home okay and they have eight meals with their families and then they they go back after aid and go back to to the taliban so you could almost sense that there was something going on in terms of the the structure of the society that would make the taliban attractive to this young man great i mean i i'll get back to you on something but i'm sure a lot to say but let me say that if you're just joining us uh this morning we have shout out to joining us in studio many of you know as former chap as another electoral commission but she was also in afghanistan as part of a team of electoral commissioners appointed by the u.n to assist in the organization of elections in afghanistan and she's here telling us her experience in afghanistan of course you know afghanistan is in the news now she's telling us what she had to go through in afghanistan and you've just had some persons having to who have joined their taliban coming home for aid and going back to join the taliban i mean you started by talking about the situation in ghana is just like the situation in afghanistan when it comes to what the people want now if you look at that and talking about the experience in afghanistan whether it become dissolution there's a disconnect between the political elite and the people do you see the same situation in ghana i see a lot of similarities and i see a lot of lessons that we should be learning in ghana see afghanistan is one of the in terms of the natural beauty of the country it's one of the most beautiful countries i have ever been to and i've been to over 40 countries it's one of the most beautiful countries i've ever been to there are places in afghanistan that look you wouldn't believe it's real you think it's a postcard natural beauty okay um the geographic positioning of afghanistan makes afghanistan very important to most of the world's superpowers the people of afghanistan are incredible they are extremely kind extremely sweet extremely generous and they are not they were not born looking for war they can be very stubborn yes but i mean to you all so we we can't for me the lesson was that we cannot take a lot of things for granted democrats is not a spectator sport so we're not supposed to just stand on the sidelines and share because our team is winning or boo because our team is not winning it takes the active involvement of all followers and leaders to have a country that we can all be proud of a country that is functioning the way that we wanted to function a country that is going the way that we wanted to go [Music] we can't have a system where you only hear the voices of politicians being amplified we must find a way to also amplify the voices of the people and we have to come to the realization that in this experiment we're doing there are no winners and losers we're either all winning or we're all losing and so we must we cannot have a system where um people are not allowed to chair the government for instance or critique the government without being put into a site so what happens now is that even if the government is doing right you cannot praise the government as soon as you praise the government ah he's been bought same thing as soon as you critique the government for something you think is not right oh he's part of the opposition so what we're doing is canceling out all the voices okay do you understand because um depending on what side you are on or perceived to be on both it cancels out you can't praise government you can't correct and sometimes i wonder if you had parents at home who were like that so when your father praises you oh god then mommy gets angry that why are you praising him you should be criticizing him and when the other side criticizes you it's not healthy it creates a very toxic environment for all of us so nobody's winning nobody's we're all losing actually that's the way i see it that's the way you see a current democracy yes we're all losing we're not winning yes i'll get back to that shortly we need to find out more about that you believe we're all losing and not winning uh this morning joined by charlottesville right here on the super morning show enjoy 99.7 fm also live on the join youth channel and of course for our folks at lava fm in commercial 99.5 uh thank you very much for joining us you could also be part of us on facebook facebook page 99.7 fm and also on youtube youtube joy 99.7 fm stay with us we'll be right back hello oh charlie how big bro i need some help [Music] the democracy are we not carrying everyone along that's not for me to make a judgment but i get concerned when i i hear a lot of ethnic stuff divisions coming up i get concerned that we are living in this country pretending as if everything is all right with our governance when there's a certain um part of our country that is not represented in parliament you're talking about salt yes i think that should worry all of us every day i get concerned when i hear a student being denied admission because of a religious belief or a hairstyle i get concerned when i hear that a muslim child in the school is not being allowed to observe their religious beliefs those things bother me because we keep it's almost as if we keep pushing people out rather than bringing them in we should be finding ways within our rules and our constitutions to accommodate beliefs to accommodate faith to accommodate practices i get concerned even with the gay lesbian thing and the way we're approaching it again it seems very exclusionary rather than inclusive how because um [Music] when you legislate sin it's very difficult it's something that a group believes is a sin to legislate sin i don't know how you can you're not changing the person you are legislating against the action and in in doing that depending on the approach you take even make the person feel you are not good enough you are not part of us that bothers me um as a christian we're told to hate the sin sure and love the sinner so i may not like the whole thing about homosexuality and all the alphabets that come with it but my my concession should also teach me that i must be a bit more tolerant of people with different beliefs and as a christian god judges the holy spirit convicts your teach my duty as a christian is to [Music] preach the word and to pray and none of us are saints really none of us are saints and that's why jesus said if you are without sin cast the first stone so i would have loved to see churches reaching out to them okay encouraging them to come and worship come let's pray together doing that does not mean that you're endorsing the sin it means that you're loving the sinner and you are hating the sin but it must be a more embracing approach okay and i think that that is what i would love to see at all levels of government based on your experiences in afghanistan you've talked about you know the young ones getting into taliban would get home for aid now based on that experience do you fear that we're probably pushing people away from precisely my point because you see when you make people feel like they're less than citizens they are not good enough you just may find that there are extremist groups out there who reach out to them and make them feel welcome come over to our team here you are a valued and loved member oh you want to go for it oh here's some food to take to your family the relevance and the value you're not giving them within the group you should they're finding it outside and that's where extremists get hold of youth and when you add that to large levels of youth unemployment large levels of drug abuse among the youth you may be creating a bigger situation that that you cannot deal with okay rather than if we had it's not that we must we we would be able to provide opportunities for everyone but i think people just want to feel they belong their views are respected their concerns are our concerns if you don't do that and you push them out they are extremist groups with lots of funding willing to take them in and when they release them back into your society you have bigger problems that you cannot solve over generations so we have a lot to do then um let's look at one or two things again in afghanistan let's look at um the u.s decision to pull out you've heard from i mean joe biden making that point when it i mean when he took over all the stuff that i've been taking earlier and so left it but i mean little choice he's had to do that should the us have done that that's not for any of us to judge based on based on hold up because first of all we'll be making a judgment call without having all the facts that they have that's one um i don't know the basis of the decision i don't know all the facts that were available to them i don't know what they know that we don't know i personal wish i don't think anybody could have stopped the u.s from pulling out because that was their decision and when you read back all the polls majority of americans were in support of america pulling out of afghanistan we can probably challenge the how could they have done it in a more structured manner could they have done it over time again i don't have enough facts to be able to say a yes or no but for me honestly the lesson for me was this that it is the citizens that build up their country we have the responsibility to build our country you can get the support and the assistance of the international community but ultimately it is up to us the leaders and the followers to build up this country it requires good followership it requires good leadership and when you don't get involved and work at building up your country what happens is you would find the planes the international planes taking off and your citizens hanging onto the wings of the planes will be left on the tarmac america the american government has a primary duty to the people of america we would like to see them do more globally but that is a responsibility we are putting on them their duty is to their citizens their citizens votes them into office with expectations of what they should do for them we as canadians should be building up ours and not expecting that anyone owes us the duty to come and save us from ourselves okay but personally based on your experience there would you ever want to see the us army staying there a bit longer i think it was time for the afghans to wear their big boy pants and pull up and do the work they need to do especially with the political elite in engagement there was always a sense of entitlement and let's be fair there was perceptions of large-scale corruption in government not just the one the immediate one that was overthrown but even the previous ones and there was a disconnect between the governing elite and the people and i mean across political lines whether in government or position and it's like they were just they were self-serving they were not listening to the people and they were doing their own thing but yet you expected the same people to send their sons into the army to fight and die it wasn't going to happen and so you'll see when you look at the numbers they said the talibans were between 80 000 and 800 000. the afghan army was over 300 000 and they're surprised that the afghan army capitulated so easily in the face of the talibans but the people always felt that their leaders had already sold out it was only about themselves so why why would they be expected to go fight the there are reports that even the army did not have basic resources that they needed to fight the political elite was taking care of themselves so who did they want to go and fight for them okay but i mean based on what you know about afghanistan also i mean during the time you were then things i mean as part of your briefings you had been told a lot about taliban and all how do you foresee the future of afghanistan with taliban in charge now i don't think anybody can tell i think it's really um a wait-and-see situation um so far they've announced an amnesty for all um former officials and um um basically everyone um tollo news one of the largest media organizations has reported that they are female uncles are still being allowed to work the talibans went to their offices and basically took arms but let them continue working [Music] initial indications is almost as if the talibans this time want to play different they want to show that they've they've changed they are more moderate and so they are doing this whole amnesty they've announced they're not going to harass anyone um all afghans should be allowed to go about their business okay we would want to hope that that continues but of course there's massive concern for the women and the young girls of afghanistan they've also said that they will allow them to continue in school which is a very um big change from the talibans of 20 years ago so we hope that long may this spirit of moderation and tolerance continue but um really is a wait and see situation okay my guest charlotte jose former chairperson of the electoral commission and um was part of the u.n team of electoral commissioners attacks to you know supervise the conduct of elections in afghanistan and she's been telling us about her days in afghanistan she's also been telling us about you know some lessons she believes we can learn but um what has karma got to do with calming down oh there's some days you wake up and it's like karma is on steroids come on these two take a chill pill that's it but coming from you karma please calm down small why and it was at a certain time at the time you were talking about procurement issues you were i wasn't we were as a country we were talking about it in fact our parliament was talking about it okay so when the person accused of not doing right procurement says karma and we know what karma is calm down small why you don't know what karma is yes i do know what's camera i'm coming i'm asking i'm asking you the question i'm asking you the question so so that particular tweet and i saw all the responses that was funny people saying ask for me i want karma to continue and all of that why why that one i mean tell us now i have to justify my tweets to you i don't think you have that power no i don't have that power but i know you were communicating something well one of my facebook followers when we put out the the promo for this show yesterday he said i should not mention the word camera i think i want to be guided by his advice you've just mentioned the word karma i know i've preached so now that you've mentioned come on tell us i mean because you know we are building a nation and we really need to be a bit more careful how we go about a lot of things that we do um when you talk about karma karma is is that the biblical equivalent would be what you sow is what you reap exactly and we always look at it as if you sow corn you would not reap beans but we forget that if you sow one corn seed you are not going to reap one piece of one seed it grows into a plant it produces a lot of fruits so there's the the principle of multiplication in in everything that we do and um [Music] even our thoughts our seeds our actions our seeds and when you reap it you're ripping multiples and that's why we should also be very careful how we manage certain situations because you know this thing is like a roller coaster that's just how life is it's up and down up and down round and round so we should be guided and then being guided that seed that was planted years ago oh well we're all watching the harvest aren't we we are watching the harvest i guess so what was the seed that was planted here oh well that's a book topic for another day yes topic for another day yes okay somebody wants to know whether so i mean we're talking about uh greek man menu at the time health matters you are i'm not no and we including i was part of it actually yes because we're discussing it and then that tweet comes in a little mischief is good for the soul oh okay oh okay okay i get it now i get it now but i mean on a personal level when you look at all that's happened within that space particularly the procurement of sputnik v vaccines parliament has been investigating i'm sure you may have followed a bit of a thing or two about investigations does it end there should we end there well it's not for me to say again let's yes i'm a citizen and so i'm going to go back to the society that we're building for ourselves the kind of nation that we're building for ourselves and the recognition that life is really it's never a plane life is a series of valleys and mountains when you're in the valley you don't get despondent you don't get into a comfort zone when you're in the on top of the mountain you don't get cocky knowing that the position may reverse you know at any time now one of the cardinal principles of the rule of of democracy is the rule of law the rule of law simply means that every citizen should receive the same treatment as soon as you start making distinctions in how you treat citizens whether it's in the law court or before parliament or in the court of public opinion what happens is that the institutions start losing the trust of the people and when they lose trust they lose legitimacy what that means is that if winston comes to take my land rule of law requires that i should go to court to get justice because i have evidence to show the land is mine if people go to court and because winston is better connected or winston is from this party or this ethnic group and winston gets justice that he does not deserve the lesson now becomes that do not trust the justice system so if winston takes my land i must find another way of getting justice you understand so what this what this now breeds is a situation where you do not have trust in the structures and institutions of states and then they lose legitimacy and that's how the breakdown starts until you get to the position the situation where you wake up one day and if it's not a taliban it's boko haram leading your youth and they are taking over government that's why i'm saying that in all our actions in all our utterances we should be very careful that we are not breaking down the structures of democracy we should be very careful that we are not i can't say that i'm just saying we should be careful every time that the media fails us by not speaking the truth or by taking sides we all lose every time that um parliament or the judiciary acts in a way that makes people feel that this is not justice we all lose because we're chipping at those institutions of states and the trust that we should have in them and so ultimately we will break down our own systems and when you don't have rule of law what you have is um chaos we don't want to get there but we must be guided and we must understand that this this process is is almost like something you must do daily working at it and making sure that you are acting from a place of right and you know leaders need to understand that people can feel authenticity people know instinctively when um politicians are just doing rhetorics both all sides you know and um the people who are on your side may cheer you on but they also know that you're not being true to the law you're not being true to the principles of justice and slowly we're eroding our democracy we're chipping at it daily the rule of law must apply we must treat all people the same if the law is broken by winston and we sanction winston when kojo does the same thing we must sanction could you otherwise was creating a system of inequality and injustice and that is what happens and then it's we're now in a global village what that means is that tomorrow the talibans may decide that oh there's a country called ghana they have gold they have bauxite they have oil we want we want to be in on that and start putting funds and supporting all the people you've pushed to the side and they now feel that you know what this is now really our chance to get the kind of governance we want that makes us feel like we are citizens and we're in charge talking about if i mean winston broke the law at the time and we felt we sanctioned him with the same law and if cujo does the same we should sanction could you also someone who asked the question so if we fail that shallow to say violated procurement rules how about taj mahal you have answered your own question next question please that's the feeling you have i don't have any feeling you answered the question you asked and you answered so i'm asking you that's the feeling is that a feeling you have the public can judge that better okay what were you on the 7th 8th and 9th of december 2020 at the beach you didn't vote no i didn't you didn't monitor the elections no why why should i did you i did yeah that's part of your work you were paid for it weren't you i am paid for that thank you i'm only asking you to find out i wasn't paid to monitor the elections okay so i can't have time with my children at the beach what's your problem i mean no i was a four-minute i mean i was a former champion of the electoral commission former former yeah that's why it's trauma i mean i thought you should be concerned about elections you're concerned about that that's that's the situation you're feeling well you're concerned about the situation in saul yes i am but what did you want me to do go and knock on people's heads and say maybe go and vote in sell no wherever you're registered how does that change the fact that did you register no you did not no you don't feel like one thing to have a lot to do with our election electoral system um that's not true to a certain extent but again i'm entitled to my remember you know you're asking me questions like i'm a public official remember that i'm not a private citizen i can do whatever i want to do okay i know within the remedy of the law of christ i know i know and that's why these are questions and yeah that's why i was at the beach i provided answers thank you i'm being nice today you should be nice no i don't have to be not the shooter i can't be anywhere i don't have it we're talking about being nice and talking about being nice i mean we're wrapping up shortly my guess that madam shout out said wrap up on there i mean some proposals that have come up um and i just want your view on this the fact that um you know the chairperson of the electoral commission had deputies having to go through uh parliamentary vetting okay before approval what's your view on that my view my view is that any um policies or any reforms that widen the space that creates new avenues for inclusiveness that create avenues for transparency should be embraced my view is that anything that makes us feel as citizens a sense of ownership of our own institutions and creates accountability by appointed or elected officials of state should be encouraged yeah yes so i like that this should be encouraged i've answered your question it depends on the principles that i don't no i haven't followed okay so what's your biggest regret as uf uh when you were as ec boss at the time biggest regret it's very hard i haven't thought of that biggest regret i think that there are things i wanted to do but um i was appointed on [Music] like two months to a major district assembly national district assembly elections and right after that we had to go into preparation for elections there are some internal administrative reforms i would have liked to see through you want to share them with us no this is not the time but i we just didn't have the time for that because we had to be focused on the electoral calendar and delivering on the elections um i think it should have been good to see through some of those internal structural issues that needed to be addressed um regret i'm not sure madam charlotta says it's been great having you join us this morning on the super morning show but uh before we wrap it all up you keep saying that we're going to wrap up and then before we're up we're wrapping it up we're wrapping it up so i'm giving you a chance uh to say your final comments to guardians oh my final comment would be that um i would wish that we would all just take a minute and just speak a blessing over afghanistan you know pray for god's light to shine through afghanistan for god's peace to shine through and just remind ourselves that there's some situations that we don't understand it can only be understood from the perspective of god which we're not um he says the methodism says god is his own interpreter and he'll make it plain in his own time and may god will be done may god use even the talibans to bring peace and calm into afghanistan may the people of afghanistan see an end to their pain and their suffering they've been at war for so many years it is time for them to have peace and while we are teach also speak peace into ghana may we may god help us to understand the the the beautiful country that we've been blessed with may god help us to understand that the beauty of our country and the strength of our country is in our diversity the different kinds of people and cultures and faiths and beliefs that we are blessed with and may god help us to be able to harness that strength and to see each other as brothers and sisters and to rather than looking on our differences and using it as the means to hate and to exclude to rather learn to embrace those differences and use it to build up this country may we learn to respect the voices of all may we learn to put value on the voices of all our people and get to a place of true inclusion where we know that um whether you are young and you are shouting fix the country or you are old and you are shouting fixing the country these are all legitimate claims that we can use to build a bigger and a better country thank you very very much for joining us my pleasure we're very very grateful that you make time thank you for having me yes good to be here this is the super morning show enjoy 99.7 fm stay with us all right so interesting conversations there with former chairperson of the electoral commission charlotte or say and she said a lot i mean she what she had to say about afghanistan was quite interesting and the insight she had whilst working there and then she also got to explain her karma tweets which many people were linking to the issues that were going on with the health minister ajman menu so there's a lot to take away from that the one bit or the quote i'm taking out of all of that is a little mischief is good for the soul we're taking a break here on the am show we're coming back with your base which is also good for the soul stay tuned

Channel: JoyNews

Views: 31,920

Rating: 4.5878787 out of 5

Keywords: Ghana Political Issues, Ghana Politics, Matters Arising in Ghana, NPP, CPP, NDC, PPP, National Budget, Chieftaincy, Ghanaian lawyers, Economy, Constitution, Election, campaign, YouTube, joy News, Latest News, headlines, News in Ghana, AM News Paper Headlines, AM Show, AM News, AM Talk

Id: B4_7SqS6SJM

Length: 51min 46sec (3106 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021