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When you are wronged and spectators ask you to seek justice in court, that is certainly not bad advice. But this advice can be bad if your opponent is taking what is yours and passers-by and the police, instead of helping you take back your property, are asking you to let him take you away so that you go to court to find out. fight later.
The court is not a place a sane human being would want to go when he has the opportunity to avoid it. If a problem can be resolved without going to court, why waste time and resources? Why would you submit to the acrimony and technical maneuvering that goes with the legal process if the problem can be resolved?
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) claims to have been deceived and to have struck a rough deal in the parliamentary and presidential elections which have just ended. While the NDC has yet to convince Ghanaians that the offenses are significant enough to overturn the presidential verdict, the party appears to be convincing Ghanaians of its firm hold on the majority side of the House of Parliament.
The NDC has been a strong advocate for the parliamentary results for the Techiman South constituency, which the Election Commission (EC) declared for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate. In the heat of the moment, heavily armed soldiers and police stormed the scene. In their attempt to restore order, they shot at the crowd, killed at least two people and injured several others.
Video of the incident shows that when police and military started firing warning shots, the crowd started to walk away. However, instead of firing in the air, some of them aimed their rifles at people and killed two unarmed civilians.
If this had happened in the United States of America, we would have joined the chorus of “Black Lives Matter”. However, in the home of the Black Continent, we have repeatedly shown that the lives of animals matter more elsewhere than the lives of black humans in Africa.
So happened to the killers. And nothing will happen.
Key members of the NDC filmed their meeting with the electoral officer of the Techiman South constituency. In this video, the party demanded a copy of the results compiled on the “pink sheet”, on the basis of which it declared the NPP winner. The NDC was supposed to have received one, but it had not given it to them. Instead of giving it to them, he said in the video that they should go to the regional office of the Election Commission.
The NDC pointed out to him in the video that he (the constituency electoral officer) was the returning officer in the parliamentary race. He had the power to declare the winner so he would have to give them the pink / results sheet because the regional agent directed them to him. He didn’t give it to them.
The EC, which was quick to respond to all allegations of wrongdoing and went so far as to publish regional and constituency pink sheets of the presidential elections, did not respond to Techiman’s allegations of wrongdoing. South. Instead, he went ahead to publish the results.
And the NDC is invited to go to court.
Why did the BOI not look into the allegations of wrongdoing in this constituency, call to order its officer in charge of that constituency if there was something wrong? And why did the EC not tell us whether or not the NDC had a legitimate concern in Techiman South?
What is more worrying is that the EC has published on its website the “pink sheets” of the summary of the presidential results of the various constituencies. The Commission does not have those of the parliamentarian on the website when I checked this morning (24 December 2020).
And as if that were not enough, the EC added “Covid-19 to Donald Trump” by mistaking the figures for the presidential election of Techiman Sud.
For this and other unforgivable mistakes both in the constituency and at the EC headquarters, I think it would not be out of place to rename Ghana’s electorate “Commission errorale” until further notice.
The most worrying issue with this election, however, has to do with the EC’s decision to prevent residents of the Santrokofi, Akpafi and Likpe Lolobi regions, often referred to as SALL, from voting in parliamentary elections.
These people have been abused for a long time. When the Akufo-Addo administration decided to separate the Oti region from the Volta region, these people protested that they wanted to stay in Hohoe, and elsewhere in the Volta region.
They did not achieve their wish after protests, letters and stakeholder meetings.
Then when the Oti region was created, they were added to the Oti region, but Hohoe, their mother district and constituency, always remained in the Volta region. This means that they were not in Hohoe Municipality, but neither were they in Jasikan District. (Elsewhere, entire districts have been added to new regions).
Like African fruit bats, inhabitants of SALL areas who are citizens of Ghana, could not tell whether they were birds or mammals when their administrative position on the map of Ghana was questioned.
The member of the assembly of Santrokofi Gbodome and the electoral area of Bume, Phillip Kweku Adom, told me that after the establishment of the Oti region, all administrative matters affecting the SALL areas such as education , health and everything else was still under Hohoe. However, only the police and other security and justice matters were handled by Jasikan District.
After the district assembly elections about a year ago, those who were elected have not yet taken the oath.
They were, however, invited to register and participate in the 2020 elections. On the eve of the elections, Sunday December 6, 2020, the EC issued a press release and explained that eligible voters in Guan District (which was to be created for SALL areas) would vote only in the presidential election in Buem. Constituency.
“The Commission wishes to announce for the information of the general public, in particular the voters of the constituency of Buem, that the presidential and parliamentary elections of December 7, 2020 will take place in the constituency of Buem, as scheduled from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
However, following the establishment of the Guan District Local Government Instrument (Guan District Assembly) (establishment), 2020 and pending the establishment of the Guan District, the eligible voters of Guan District will vote only during the presidential election, but not during the parliamentary elections in the constituency of Buem, ”the statement said.
As we speak, the people of these regions are not represented in parliament. Some analysts have claimed that there is a grand plot to take them away from Hohoe Municipality in order to pave the way for victory for Energy Minister John Peter Amewu, who has vowed to win this seat.
According to the theorists of this conspiracy, the inhabitants of these areas felt mistreated in the creation of the new region and were going to vote to protest against the ruling nuclear power plant and no incitement from Mr. Amewu would have influenced them.
Whether the weavers of these tales are wrong or not, one problem remains unacceptable.
Guan County residents have no representation as the 8e The Parliament of the Fourth Republic is due to be inaugurated in two weeks.
On October 19, 2017, President Akufo-Addo inaugurated a commission of inquiry for the creation of new regions. The Commission held national hearings and consultations and presented a report. The whole legal process has passed. National education was conducted and in December 2018 a referendum was held and six new regions were created.
All of this happened in 14 months.
Between the referendum of December 2018 and the general elections of 2020, it is approximately 24 months. Why was it easy to create six new regions in 14 months and not be able to create a district in 24 months?
So what did the government (led by President Akufo-Addo) do during all of this and not be able to create a single district? The new district would have allowed the Election Commission to complete the process and would have allowed the people to vote.
And since it wasn’t ready yet, why weren’t they allowed to vote in their usual constituency?
When did the EC realize that the inhabitants of the traditional regions of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe could not vote in the parliamentary elections?
Why did the EC decide to wait until the day before the elections to make the announcement? Was it a deliberate plan to strip them of their voting rights and deny them the ability to seek a legal injunction on the process that affected them?
Now the parliament is split into two equal halves between the NDC and the NPP. We don’t have a majority. Why are people in SALL areas not allowed to vote so that we can solve this unprecedented constitutional puzzle?
If they can’t have the opportunity to elect their own MP, why don’t we allow them to vote where they have always voted – Hohoe constituency?
It is very important for our democracy to know who is the majority and who is in the minority in parliament. Chances are, if the SALL people are allowed to vote, whether in their new constituency or the old one, the NDC will be in the majority at this point and the ruling NPP will be in the minority.
The creation of the new district and the process for getting them to vote rests largely with the executive. The president will obviously not be happy to have an NDC majority and he certainly would not be happy to have an election for Guan constituency today or to have the SALL region in the Hohoe region vote.
Denying the SALL people the opportunity to vote before January 7 would amount to a coup d’état on the legislative arm of our government. And the executive chairman will participate.
The refrain is: “Go to court!” But we know those who created this problem. They have the solution to the problem.
Will the legal process be over and will residents of SALL regions vote before January 7?
No!
So why did the discussions leave out those who created the problem? And for how long are we going to continue allowing government and state institutions to use the law as an excuse to erode an important part of our democratic gains?
What will it mean to go ahead and inaugurate the president when we don’t have a majority in parliament and a president? And what priority are we going to set?
The writer, Manasseh Azure Awuni, is a freelance investigative journalist. His e-mail address is [email protected]
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