COMMENT: Televising Supreme Court will offer no political advantage

By Kofi Thompson

According to their critics, having now got what they sought, those who originally asked for - and were seeking to exploit - the live televising and broadcasting of the Supreme Court's hearing of the presidential election petition challenging the declaration of President Mahama as winner of the December 2012 presidential election by the Electoral Commissioner, will get no political advantage whatsoever from it.

In the view of those critics, unfortunately for the aforementioned hardline and extremist politicians, the tense atmosphere in the country no longer persists.

Thus, what was a clever ploy meant to pour fuel on the fires of disorder, will now become a national forum to expose a falsehood - specifically designed to facilitate a hoped for power grab, with the assistance of the judiciary.

Apparently - if those critics are to be believed - with the exception of the die-hard foot-soldier types used as cannon fodder by cynical politicians, who were, and are still disappointed that their dreams of enriching themselves were dashed in December 2012 - and now vainly hope their party's candidate will be declared president by judges - many ordinary people have come to terms with the fact that someone other than their preferred candidate won the presidential election, and have moved on psychologically.

What the live broadcast of the December 2012 election petition hearings will now apparently do - contrary to what those who proposed it were said to be hoping for, in the view of critics - is that they will rather make the vast majority of fair-minded and patriotic Ghanaians even more determined to speak out boldly, against any political party and politicians that refuse to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court - to ensure that the country stays peaceful and orderly.

For that reason, those selfsame critics predict that the live televising and broadcasting of the Supreme Court presidential election petition proceedings will not serve the purposes of those who originally proposed it.

Well, with their outrageous and anti-democratic fulminations of late - damning ordinary people for their apathy and refusal to be angry; and predicting violent revolution because the December 2012 election did not go according to their plan - surely, that can only be good for Mother Ghana?

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.