The Editor in Chief of the Accra Daily Mail, says the ongoing election petition hearing at the Supreme Court has worsened Ghana\u2019s division as a people, in spite of whatever positive accolades may be ascribed to it.<\/p>\n
He says claims that the petition will help deepen Ghana\u2019s democracy or help improve the electoral system are theoretical, but six months after the 2012 elections, the reality is that \u201cwe are still behaving as if we are in an election year\u201d with people taking strong, entrenched positions on the petition.<\/p>\n
\u201cSix months after elections we really should have been coming together and moving on but six months after elections we are still expressing so much anger and frustration\u2026 I don\u2019t think this petition, no matter what angle you give to it, no matter what gloss you put on it, it\u2019s not uniting us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Ghanaians can strengthen their democracy in many, many ways but certainly not with litigation.<\/p>\n
Haruna Atta said Ghana has \u201csince 1992 seen a lot of electoral reforms that did not send us through this stress, tension and trauma. In 1992 it was said that the verdict was stolen, a book was written, it led to the introduction of transparent ballot boxes, then we went on into I\/D cards with pictures, then we went on into this biometric system\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
He said as a nation we have been able to do all these things without the present stress and trauma, and he would take with a pinch of salt, any claims that the petition is building democracy. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s just an academic exercise but I don\u2019t think you need necessarily to flex your political muscle in this way to build democracy,\u201d he told Radio Gold\u2019s Gold Power Drive Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
He told programme host, Alhassan Suhuyini that the opposition New Patriotic Party had its foot firmly on the self-destruct button as a result of recent developments, among them the party\u2019s handling of recent differences with one of its founding members, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby and the contents of a letter sent the party\u2019s chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey by Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy, a former presidential aspirant of the NPP.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Arthur Kennedy\u2019s letter says it all, about the paranoia, the intolerance and so on\u2026 Any political party that takes that path is taking the path of self-destruction,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n
His paper had published that unlike the NPP which was making itself unattractive to voters per its actions, President John Mahama was making the ruling National Democratic Congress more attractive.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruly, unless people don\u2019t want to accept it, President Mahama is actually polishing up the NDC, making the NDC less vociferous of so many things and making it more attractive. If you read the story we make reference to the Media Foundation for West Africa\u2019s monitoring of the airwaves during the election period. They were monitoring hate language, they were monitoring insults and-so-on-and-so-forth and a lot of the time the NPP came tops in the majority of the political groupings that used terrible language.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s documented, I\u2019m not making it up. And so any political party that makes intimidation, intolerance, insults and-so-on-and-so-forth, it\u2019s definitely putting people away, it\u2019s certainly not making itself attractive and it\u2019s all come about as a result of this so-called petition.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he had himself been a victim of the insults being expressed in the party, with some claiming he had been bought and others saying he was hungry and that his newspaper had collapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026And that\u2019s the interesting one, the man who said my paper has collapsed was actually discussing my paper, a story in my paper. .. So politicians are getting a bit blinkered and they are getting so angry about their voting ambition and they are not checking their language and they are adding to the tension of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
While claiming that certain persons had taken over the soul of the party and were no longer interested in the future of the party but wholly concerned about when the election petition in court would be over for the courts to declare Nana Akufo-Addo, leader of the party, president. Anyone who does not sing that mantra is deemed a pariah or an enemy. But he said the soul of the party cannot be predicated on the soul of one man, suggesting that the party needs reforms.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Graphic Online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Editor in Chief of the Accra Daily Mail, says the ongoing election petition hearing at the Supreme Court has worsened Ghana\u2019s division as a people, in spite of whatever positive accolades may be ascribed to it. He says claims that the petition will help deepen Ghana\u2019s democracy or help improve the electoral system are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11495],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n