Coronavirus: Let’s hold elections but with minimum health risk – Mahama Ayariga
Mahama Ayariga, Bawku Central MP
Mahama Ayariga, the Bawku Central MP, has indicated that in the midst of the outbreak of the COVID-19, the December 7 general elections can still come on with minimum health risks.
Read full articleAccording to him, COVID-19 has presented to the world a special challenge, Ghana as a country must take a firm decision in the midst of this challenge on who governs the country but certainly not the traditional way of crowds gathering to exercise their constitutional franchise.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Tuesday evening, the legislator argued that the 1992 Constitution of Ghana as it stands is facing a real constitutional crisis and also it is silent on what the country should do in terms of a global pandemic.
He explained further that the constitution only gives provisions on how the country can deal with emergency situations.
He said, the assertion that the Speaker of Parliament or the Chief Justice can take over the realms of governance is neither here nor there because there is no specific provision in the constitution for that.
He explained that, The Chief Justice only takes over when the President, Vice President and Speaker are out of the country and this does not apply when a president’s tenure is over.
“I think we can figure out a mechanism for taking the decisions that need to be taken even with COVID-19 which includes holding an election with minimum health risks,” he said.
The intention of having a new voter’s register, Mr Ayariga believes will impose much health risks on Ghanaians and should be avoided.
He said there is generalized assumption that the voter’s register is bloated because there are a lot of names of persons from a particular ethnic group who are perceived to be NDC sympathizers in it, and therefore there should be a new one.
“A serious Electoral Commission can easily collaborate with the authorities in Togo to clean the register if there is a strong belief in that assertion, a bout our electoral roll because Togo has been able to register all their citizens unto a national database like what the National Identification Authority (NIA) is trying to do,” he stressed.
