Officials of peace and governance institutions in the
country have described yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling on the 2012
election petition as a victory for all Ghanaians and not for any
particular party.
They commended the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for accepting the verdict in
good faith, and urged Ghanaians to forge ahead in unity and
tolerance, to further deepen the country’s democratic
practice.
Sharing some thoughts with the Daily Graphic on the Supreme
Court ruling and the way forward, officials of the National Peace
Council (NPC), the West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP),
the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Ghana Centre for
Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) advised the victors to celebrate
in moderation and avoid taunting their political
opponents.
The Chairman of the NPC, Most Rev Prof. Emmanuel Asante, said
as a people who believed in the rule of law, “we have no other
option than to accept the verdict”.
“We are grateful to God that it’s all over now,” he said, but
the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana was quick to
add that the ruling was not the end of the matter because the
details were not yet known.
He advised members of the NDC to be circumspect in their
jubilation and sensitive to the feelings of NPP
supporters.
Reforms
Most Rev Prof. Asante said while awaiting the details of the
ruling, which might include electoral reform issues, there was the
need for stakeholders to engage in serious dialogue to pursue
reforms in the country’s political system.
For his part, the Executive Director of WANEP, Mr Emmanuel
Bombande, said the ruling gave Ghana an opportunity to deepen and
open its democratic space and bring an end to the
‘winner-takes-all’ system of government.
He said the ruling “is momentous in Ghana’s democratic
development”, adding, “I think that every Ghanaian has won; so we
should not think that some people have won and others have
lost.”
He said the election petition had raised Ghana’s democratic
credentials higher and that the positive strides would yield a lot
of international goodwill for the nation in the coming
days.
Good democratic institutions
Mr Bombande said the successful conclusion of the case
demonstrated that institutions of state in the country were
working.
Sharing a similar opinion, the Deputy Director of CDD-Ghana,
Dr Franklin Oduro, said the Supreme Court verdict gave a lot of
confidence that increasingly, Ghanaians were deepening their belief
in democratic institutions.
He said the ruling was a demonstration of the operation of
the rule of law and constitutionalism in Ghana.
Moving forward
Dr Oduro urged Ghanaians to reflect on the outcome of the
election petition to build on the country’s democratic
process.
He underscored the need to strengthen the electoral process
in order to avoid similar challenges in the future.
He said Nana Akufo-Addo’s acceptance of the verdict was very
significant because “that particular statement is a confirmation
that we are ready to move on as a nation”.
A Research Fellow at the Governance Unit of the IEA, Dr
Ransford Gyampo, said the whole world was now watching how Ghana
would deal with the aftermath of the election
petition.
Appeal
Dr Gyampo appealed for calm and asked all Ghanaians to be
law-abiding, adding that they must refrain from provocative
celebration and taunting of political opponents.
He also appealed to the leadership of the political parties
to demonstrate good faith and abide by the provisions of the
Political Parties Code of Ethics on the need to ensure peace,
stability, law and order.
Dr Gyampo, who is also a senior lecturer at the Political
Science Department of the University of Ghana, called on Ghanaians
to uphold the virtue of tolerance and politics of
accommodation.
On the media, he said, they should endeavour to maintain
absolute impartiality and avoid provocative discussions, while
urging the security agencies to protect the peace of the country
without fear or favour.
