[ 2013-05-25 ]

Vote-Rigging Is The Problem, Not Election Petition
As long as we have intellectuals amidst us who
find it either too inexpedient or threatening to
face the truth and factual reality of Fourth
Republican Ghanaian political culture, we are
doomed to a state of moral and cognitive stasis
for the foreseeable future.

I am here, of course, referring to Dr. Kwesi
Jonah, the Legon political scientist who recently
appears to have carved a quite remarkable
avocation out of blaming the proverbial victim for
the massive fraud that was the
Afari-Gyan-conducted Election 2012 (See "Election
Petition Threatens Stability - Kwesi Jonah" Ghana
News Agency/Ghanaweb.com 5/24/13).

At a roundtable discussion sponsored by the
Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr. Jonah was
reported to have pointedly observed that "the
outcome of the petition hearing has the
potential[ity] of threatening national peace and
cohesion, overstretching the security system, the
creation of constitutional paralysis, and the
paralysis of the central and local government
machinery."

In the recent past, the Legon political science
lecturer has gratuitously chided boycotting New
Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentarians for doing a
disservice to their constituents and the nation,
at large, because these MPs had decided to
privilege high-minded democratic principles over
the knavish condonation of electoral corruption
and nullification.

The fact of the matter is that what is at stake is
not the decision by the Akufo-Addo-led New
Patriotic Party to petition the Supreme Court of
Ghana for electoral redress, but the conditions
that made it possible and virtually acceptable, at
least on the part of their partisans and
sympathizers, for Messrs. Afari-Gyan and Mahama to
collusively rig Election 2012 in favor of the
latter.

And while we are still on the latter score, let me
take this prime opportunity to remind Dr. Jonah
that it was the flat, rude and adamant refusal of
the Nkrumah-leaning Dr. Afari-Gyan to promptly
review the results of Election 2012, at the
express request of Nana Akufo-Addo, that
precipitated the present crisis situation.

And so, yes, one resoundingly and unreservedly
agrees with Dr. Jonah that the entire
architectural design of the way in which elections
are done, or held, in this country ought to be
thoroughly revamped. And this, of course, implies
the immediate removal of the Electoral
Commissioner and most of the key operatives of the
Electoral Commission (EC), if confidence in the EC
among the ranks of the Ghanaian electorate is to
be restored in the offing.

I must also poignantly observe that during my
half-century existence as a Ghanaian citizen, both
at home and abroad, and with the apocalyptic
emergence of Chairman Jerry John Rawlings and his
AFRC, PNDC and now, NDC, Ghana has not even
half-experienced the sort of "national cohesion,
peace, unity, stability and reconciliation" that
Dr. Jonah wants to force upon us. At best what has
prevailed over the last three decades can be
called an "uneasy truce."

It is the inevitable wearing out of the foregoing
dicy political climate which the Legon political
scientist appears to be having such an extremely
difficult time in fully appreciating. Ultimately,
the only saving grace left to Ghanaians presently
is the existence of a legal and judicial system
that is no respecter of political partisanship.
And as to whether the Atuguba Court is capable of
living up to the standard of expectation, both
morally and politically, is what all patriotic
Ghanaians ought to be worried about.

As for victory celebrations, there is absolutely
nothing than can obviate them in a
constitutionally democratic culture, the
likelihood of offending group and individual
sensitivities notwithstanding.

Editor's Note:
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

Source - Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe,Jr., PhD

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