President Akufo-Addo has underscored the need for the Electoral Commission to organize free, fair, and transparent elections.
The President said Ghanaians must hold the EC to account for the discharge of its constitutional mandate.
He made the remarks in his address to mark Ghana’s Constitution Day held on January 7, 2023.
He said the EC must conduct elections so that the people and stakeholders will not have lingering questions over the validity of the one elected.
He said ”Fellow Ghanaians, I acknowledge that the strength of any democracy is very much determined by the credibility of its electoral process, and respect for the will of the people. We cannot overlook the fact that instability has followed disputed elections in many parts of the African continent.
That is why we, in Ghana, must continue to urge the Electoral Commission to work to ensure that all stakeholders in the electoral process, that is the citizenry, civil society and political parties, do not have lingering questions about the legitimacy of an election. On the two (2) occasions in which disputes have arisen over the results of presidential elections, happily it was in the court, and not on the streets, that the issues were satisfactorily resolved.”
He added ”By all accounts, we have come a long way, and we should not take it for granted that everybody in Ghana has accepted democracy as the preferred mode of governance. There are those who would rather have authoritarian rule, because they claim our country is underdeveloped and democracy is cumbersome, and we need to get things done in a hurry. We still have some work to do to convince such people that we are all safer under democracies”.
”As President of the Republic, I assure you that, out of duty to our children and grandchildren,and to generations yet unborn, my government will not give up when it comes to deepening our democracy and guaranteeing the integrity of the electoral process, and neither should you, the Ghanaian people. We do not have to look far back into history to see that stable period of constitutional government and intelligent management of the economy lead to prosperity. We must do everything within our means to safeguard our democracy.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
