Emelia Afi Agbenyo

Emelia Afi Agbenyo is a Ghanaian public administrator and one of the two Deputy Chairpersons of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC). President John Mahama swore her in at Jubilee House on 12 October 2026, together with Dr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah. Her appointment was one of the most debated in the country that week, because of her past role as a spokesperson for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Early life and education

Agbenyo was born on 7 October 1983 in Ashaiman, in the Greater Accra Region. She attended Chemu Secondary School in Tema, where she wrote the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 2002. She then went to the University of Ghana, Legon, and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Linguistics. In August 2020 she completed a Master of Arts in Education Management and Leadership at the same university. At the time of her EC appointment she was studying for a master's degree in International Relations at GIMPA.

Career

From June 2008 to January 2011 she worked as a Programme Assistant with the UNDP and Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme. She later moved into technical and vocational education. Between April 2019 and July 2020 she was an Inclusive Skills Development Advisor on the GIZ Vocational Education and Training Toolbox project, and she co-authored Ghana's first disability and gender inclusive TVET manual.

Before joining the EC she was Deputy Director-General in charge of Operations at the Ghana TVET Service, where she oversaw the operations of 261 public TVET institutions and a workforce of about 11,000.

Electoral Commission appointment

The two deputy chair posts became vacant in 2026 when Dr Eric Bossman Asare resigned to return to the University of Ghana and Samuel Tettey retired on reaching the compulsory retirement age. At the swearing-in, President Mahama told the new deputies to discharge their duties without favour towards any party, candidate or government. Agbenyo works alongside the EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa.

The New Patriotic Party called for her appointment to be withdrawn, pointing to her work as an NDC governance spokesperson during the 2024 general election campaign and her earlier role as Director of Legal Affairs for the party's Women's Wing. Policy commentator Senyo Hosi described the choice as a major disappointment, and journalist Austin Brako-Powers said it contradicted the President's earlier criticism of partisan EC appointments.