Stop telecasting the election petition live - Bala Maikankan

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party, Mr Bala Maikankan, has registered his displeasure on the extent to which the petition against the 2012 election is negatively affecting the country’s economy.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with this reporter, Mr Maikankan noted that the extent to which the live telecast is taking the attention of workers during working hours is alarming, and the earlier something is done about it, the better..

“The fact that the election result is being challenged does not mean that everything else should grind to a halt”

“Unfortunately, that is the problem at hand now” he added

He said apart from the obvious fact that the President and his Ministers are serving with divided attention, the public and Civil servants have also taken a keen interest in the proceeding and are sacrificing working hours to keep track of how things are unfolding.

Though he admitted to being supportive of the action taken by the NPP in view of that fact, they are exploiting a leeway provided by the constitution instead of resorting to the ‘strong man’ approach, there is the need to speedy the process to make way for the country to return to normal life.

He suggested that the parties involved should come together and take a second look at the whole idea of live telecast, juxtapose the negatives and positives and chose which way to go.

He proposed a dedicated TV program in the evening that would summarize what transpired, on every hearing day, to keep workers abreast with the trend the case is taking without sacrificing working hours to achieve this..

He said this would even make it easier for people to appreciate the procedure other than the lengthy, boring repetitions that accompany the hearing.

“Despite the enormous time spent behind TV set and Radios listening to the program, people still do come to me for explanation which implies that the live telecast that not necessarily mean people have a clear understanding of what’s going on”.

According to him, the fact that the outcome of the election is being battled out at the Supreme Court has taken a lot of shine on the country as far as investors interest are concerned, and the very least that can be done is to put measures in place to ensure that worker performs at their maximum ability to ensure that our economy does not pay as a result of our quest to entrench our democracy.

He also added that Ghana’s image as the leader in the Region as far free and fair elections are concerned is on the line, and the only way to savage this is to fast-track the legal process and focus on building the nation and restructuring the Electoral Commission.

He concluded by advising the NPP and NDC to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court so that we can come together and develop the country.