Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu says he is not sure he will still be backing President John Dramani Mahama in a year if appointments to the Electoral Commission (EC) continue as they have this week.
Speaking on TV3’s The Key Points on Saturday, October 17, 2026, Mr Kpebu criticised the appointment and swearing-in of Emelia Affi Agbenyo as a Deputy Chairperson of the EC saying the news hit him hard.
“It was like a fairy tale in the negative sense. Very, very negative. I mean, I couldn’t believe my ears.”
He accused the President of reversing the reset he promised.
“This one is the reset in reverse. It’s not sustainable. That’s not the legacy. You have two years to go,” he said.
Mr Kpebu said he and others had objected for years to politically linked appointments to the Commission, starting with Jean Mensa’s, and including those of Dr Peter Appiahene and Salima Ahmed Tijani. He said that in 2024 the NDC itself raised objections about the EC’s Director of IT.
“So putting it simply, this is a strong race to the bottom,” he said.
He said Mr Mahama’s own remarks in opposition, complaining about party members being placed on the EC, should be at the centre of the debate. He also pointed out that the President won the last election by about 1.7 million votes, and asked why he would make such an appointment.
Mr Kpebu said the people of Ghana will decide at the polls, but urged them to make enough noise in the meantime for the message to reach the President that the appointment is unlike him. He said complaining alone is not enough, and Ghanaians should think concretely about how to punish the government.
Ms Agbenyo’s earlier links with the NDC, in particular her part in the party’s manifesto committee ahead of the 2024 elections, have raised concerns about the Commission’s perceived neutrality.
She and Dr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah were sworn in as Deputy Chairpersons on October 12.
The NPP has called on Mr Mahama to withdraw the appointment but the government has defended it.
The Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has dismissed the NPP’s objections, and presidential staffer Beatrice Annan has said Ms Agbenyo was never a card-bearing NDC member.
