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'Accept Supreme Court ruling on election petition'

Speakers at a round-table have added their voice to calls on parties in the presidential election petition to put the national interest above partisan considerations by accepting the ruling of the Supreme Court at the end of the case.

According to them, it was important to maintain national peace and cohesion after the case. 

They also urged the leadership of the parties in the suit to educate their supporters to accept the court ruling, irrespective of which way it would go.

A former Supreme Court judge,  Mr Justice P.K. Kludze, and Mr Kwesi Jonah, a lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, were of the view that the unexpected was possible when the court gave its ruling, in view of the high stakes in the matter. 

They, therefore, called on the security agencies to put in place measures to contain possible political upheavals.

The forum, on the theme, “Post-Electoral Dispute Resolution: Fostering Peace, National Cohesion and Reconciliation after the Supreme Court Ruling”, was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra yesterday.

It brought together some political party leaders, including the Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ms Samia Yaba Nkrumah; Mr Peter Mac-Manu and Nana Ohene Ntow, former National Chairman and General Secretary, respectively, of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Vanderpuije.

Setting the tone for discussions on the topic, “Political parties as agents of national cohesion and reconciliation: The dos and don'ts in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling”, Prof. Kludze said whatever the court’s decision might be, the country would not witness true progress unless there was tolerance for divergent views anchored around political parties with ideological and philosophical underpinnings.

“There is, therefore, no justification for the often antagonistic and vituperative stance taken by the leadership or membership of the political parties,” he said, adding that political parties are not military brigades to be antagonistic against one another.

Rather, they are working and competing to improve the lot of the people and must collaborate to defeat the poverty, squalor and diseases facing the people, he said.

He asked the political parties to exercise restraint, as he was confident that the Supreme Court would discharge a fair ruling, knowing the huge task it had.

Professor Kludze, who is also a visiting Senior Fellow at the IEA, observed that the winner-takes-all phenomenon had been the bane of politics in Ghana.

He said that concept had been carried to such an extent as to distort the whole government machinery, replacing staff of state departments and agencies with party loyalists.

“Even employees with no responsibility for policy formulation are removed or replaced. We have heard of even lorry parks and public toilets being taken over upon a change of government,” he added.

To mitigate that canker, Prof. Kludze proposed a strong system of local government to give more power to the grass roots. 

He stated that although successive governments had espoused decentralisation, they all retained the present system of high centralised administration, making local government administration an appendage of the government.

Taking his turn, Mr Jonah, whose topic was, “The role of civil society in ensuring peace and security in the aftermath of the election dispute resolution”, noted that whatever the direction of the court ruling, Ghana would never be the same again.

He mentioned threats to peace and national cohesion, constitutional paralysis, political revenge, a poisoned political atmosphere that could spill over into election 2016 and an overstretched national security system as some of the consequences of the petition.

He contended that there would be serious implications for the country, no matter which way the court ruling would go, and called on civil society organisations and churches to appeal to the political parties to ban any kind of victory celebrations even before the court gave its ruling.

Mr Jonah advised the media to avoid provocative discussions that could inflame passions.

A visiting Senior Fellow of the IEA, Brigadier-General Francis Agyemfra (retd), earlier in his welcome remarks, had said Ghana had so far demonstrated a high level of political maturity, compared to other African states, having successfully held six elections that had been adjudged free, fair, credible and transparent.

Story: Sebastian Syme

Writer’s email: [email protected] 


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