By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
March 5, 2016
E-mail: [email protected]
It is quite obvious that People’s National Convention (PNC) operatives like Messrs. Bernard Mornah and Abu Ramadan are determined to monkey-wrench the victory path of the Akufo-Addo-led main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) – (See “Suit Against Abuakwa North By-Election Dismissed” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/3/16). Mr. Ramadan’s recent dastardly attempt to either unduly delay or altogether scuttle the Akyem-Abuakwa-North by-election, on the cynical grounds that the Electoral Commission (EC) could not legally and credibly conduct the constitutionally mandated exercise, must be condemned in to-to.
To be certain, the March 29 by-election, made necessary by the stabbing death of the Abuakwa-North’s parliamentary incumbent, Mr. J. B. Danquah-Adu, would not be the first time that any electoral exercise is being, or has been, conducted by the Charlotte Kesson-Smith Osei-led EC since the Atuguba-presided Supreme Court panel handed down its at once very questionable and controversial ruling on the 2012 Presidential Election Petition. Neither will it be the last. To be sure, since the Atuguba ruling came down, both major Ghanaian political parties, namely, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), have conducted both their presidential and parliamentary primaries via the use of the much-maligned voters’ register.
And throughout all this, no hand or voice of vehement protestation was raised by Mr. Ramadan. At least not to the knowledge of yours truly. The resolute decision by the Wood-presided Supreme Court to summarily dismiss the suit brought by Mr. Ramadan, a former National Youth Organizer of the PNC, must be heartily commended. Needless to say, the key operatives of the PNC have been known to be smack-dab in the pay of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress for some time now, the vehement protestations of the cynical likes of Mr. Mornah and the present plaintiff to the contrary notwithstanding.
We must also note that Mr. Ramadan’s argument that it was judicially “contemptuous” for the Electoral Commission to conduct the Abuakwa-North by-election via the use of the present voters’ register was decidedly frivolous and abjectly disdainful of the inalienable constitutional right of the people of Akyem-Abuakwa-North to be duly represented in our august National Assembly. The Supreme Court was also apt in its decision not to proffer any reasons for its laudable decision to dismiss the Ramadan suit, and instead incorporate the latter within the broader sweep of its pending verdict on the credibility, or lack thereof, of the current voters’ register.
Whatever decision the Wood Supreme Court pronounces on the integrity of the current voters’ register, it is hoped, would be inflected with utmost impartiality, if political chaos and societal anomie are to be averted in the frenzied wake of Election 2016. Indeed, some political wet-blankets have been inveighing against the popular notion that should the arms of justice be prejudicially wrenched in favor of social injustice, there is certain to emerge the turbulent and internecine reign of Caine. Rather, what these lily-livered self-styled peacemakers ought to be fervidly praying for is that the Apex Court’s ruling, whenever its scheduled pronouncement dawns, would be cross-sectionally perceived to have been guided by impeccable prudence.
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