Monday, 17 December 2012

Ghana's Supreme Court Will Not See Electoral Fraud Where None Took Place

In December 2008, when Atta Akyea & Co. sought to deny Ghanaian voters the regime-change many wanted, by arranging to have a case with massive  ramifications surreptitiously heard on a public holiday, Providence intervened.


And the end that that   legal sleight of hand sought - to steal an election with the help of a  judge they thought was a  "right judge" (to quote Atta Akyea and Malik Yakubu Alhassan) - failed to materialise.


Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo is a good and decent human being. His curse is that he is  surrounded mostly by utterly ruthless individuals with inflated-egos,  who unfortunately for Ghana,  lack the wisdom of great men such as the late  J. B. Da Rocha.


Alas, today,  the far-sighted and  principled  Da Rocha is no longer around to stand up to  the mendacious, amoral and power-hungry lot surrounding Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo,  whose dreams of ruling our nation has been shattered yet again, and tell them to the face that what they  seek is neither in the interest of the Ghanaian nation-state  nor that of their party.


What the too-clever-by-half politicians with inflated egos  seeking to subvert the will of the ordinary people of our country yet again,  forget, is that in the era of Facebook and Twitter, no self-respecting professional is unaware that the judgement of one's peers is no longer  limited to peers within national boundaries.


It is not for nothing that Providence ensured that at this critical juncture in Ghana's history,  the Electoral Commission would be headed by an honest and  dedicated public servant,  keenly aware of the fact that the focus of his peers around the world would be on him during Ghana's presidential and parliamentary elections.


Dr. Afari Djan is a principled gentleman who treasures his well-deserved international   reputation. He would never have been  party to any electoral fraud. That is why he is so adamant and emphatic that claims of electoral fraud made by the New Patriotic Party are "false".


In the same vein, every judge sitting on the Supreme Court panel selected to sit on the case the New Patriotic Party says it is bringing to prove the presidential election was rigged, will likewise  be keenly aware that their peers in Commonwealth democracies such as the United Kingdom; Canada; Australia; India; South Africa and Botswana for example, will be taking a keen interest in how they proceed.


Those who think that  "right" judges will rescue them, will have a rude awakening. No one can influence the judges who will sit on the case. Instead,  those judges  will prove to the world  that Ghana indeed has  a  truly world-class Supreme Court - with high-minded  judges.


That  is why one doubts  very much that those eminent and learned judges,  will deliver a judgement other than  that which their impartial and incorruptible peers in say the United Kingdom or Botswana would, in similar circumstances: all things being equal,  so to speak.


This time round too, falsehood will not win power through the backdoor for the New Patriotic Party, with the connivance  of the Ghanaian judiciary. The Supreme Court of Ghana will most definitely not see electoral fraud where none has actually taken place.


Tel: 027 745 3109.


Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.

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