Michael Donyinah Mensah, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Opinion and Awareness, (CenPOA) a non-partisan and non-governmental civil society organisation dedicated to promoting civic engagement and participation in public administration, has expressed the opinion that the violent incidents that marred the Ablekuma North constituency will tarnish John Dramani Mahama’s presidency if the government does not take swift action to bring perpetrators to book.

The policy analyst stated that the country did not learn any lessons from the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violent incidents.

He lamented that what happened has shown that democracy is not growing and is a threat to the stability of the people in the country.

He explained that from what has happened, it has become evident that without violence and hooliganism, the country cannot organise an election properly.

“It appears without violence and hooliganism; we cannot organise elections and declare winners. This is most unfortunate and shows we are still far from realising the full potential and benefits of our democracy.

"We should have learnt lessons from the Ayawaso West Wuogon crisis, but from what happened on July 11, 2025, it is sad and disgusting, especially when we have passed a law to deal with electoral violence and vigilantism and hooliganism. This clearly shows that we are not moving forward,” he said on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM.

Michael Donyina Mensah also condemned the justification by some people, saying, “Whereas some people have claimed that ‘tit-for-tat’ is not a sin, it is actually a grave sin because if you did something wrong and I condemned it, I have no business doing the same thing and justifying it.”

“The NDC made political capital out of the Ayawaso West Wuogon crisis and lambasted former President Akufo-Addo for failing to act, so after winning office, if a similar thing had occurred under your watch, then I can confidently say Ghanaian politicians are hypocrites.

"This will be a trial and test case for President John Dramani Mahama because if he fails to act on this matter to show Ghanaians that he is acting differently from what they expected Nana Akufo-Addo to do when the Ayawaso West Wuogon incident occurred, it will be a blemish on his presidency.”

Michael Donyina Mensah said although the Vice President Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang’s condemnation is good and reflects the position of the government, immediate action ought to be taken against those engaged in the act.

“Verbal condemnation is not enough. It must move beyond that, and action must be taken against those who engaged in the lawlessness. We need to see action taken against those who caused the commotion on the day of the election.”