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General News of Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Source: joyonline

NPP calls for Parliament to reconvene ahead of Supreme Court ruling

The opposition NPP wants Parliament to reconvene in anticipation of any eventuality after the Supreme Court rules on who actually won the December 2012 presidential elections.

A deputy Communications Director, Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, who was on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana explained that just as other state institutions such as the police are preparing actively, Parliament ought to get ready for the possibility that the Supreme Court could declare the first petitioner and NPP flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as the legitimate winner of the controversial December poll.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is among three petitioners who are alleging fraud and are trying to prove this through the courts. The nation now awaits a verdict of a nine-member panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday 29th August 2013.

Yaw Buaben Asamoah said three “natural” outcomes are to be expected after the ruling- the petitioner’s case may be thrown out, there could be a re-run or the sitting president will be re-affirmed as legitimate winner.

He explained that in the event of the first two outcomes, the services of Parliament will be required to swear in their candidate or the Speaker of Parliament would act as president.

This possibility, he said, meant that the state must prepare for them by being proactive.

“We are always reacting when we can plan ahead and be proactive. We firefight when we react...that is our bane as a society”, he noted.

He said Parliament must be visibly seen to be preparing in order to reduce tension because “prudence is the foundation of peace”.

However, a deputy Minister of Energy, John Jinapor, could not agree to this suggestion. Such comments are worrying and unnecessary, he said.

He suggested that if the call was to be taken seriously, it would by extension mean that all the diplomats and chiefs who usually witness swearing-in occasions should be called in readiness for the “so-called scenarios”.

He said it would be proper to leave everything in the hands of the Supreme Court instead of pre-empting what the likely verdict will be.

He wondered “what is it that the NPP communicators know that we don’t know”.