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Opinions of Monday, 31 December 2012

Columnist: Thompson, Kofi

Will The Allegations of Electoral Fraud Stand Up In Court?

By Kofi Thompson





Unfortunately for the very clever people in the midst of Ghana's political class -

who are so good at cloaking bare-boned self-interest with the fine and silken

garb of high-minded principle - alas, as a tactic, it apparently does not

fool the discerning in our country one bit: in as far as the refusal by the New

Patriotic Party (NPP) to concede defeat in the presidential election goes.





According to their harshest critics, it is obvious that far from the noble

objective of "deepening democracy", the refusal to concede defeat in the 2012

presidential election but to resort to exploiting the legal system instead, is

simply to help maintain the atmosphere of uncertainty in Ghana - as part of a

grand strategy designed to enable selfish individuals surrounding the good and

decent-minded Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to continue maintaining their iron grip

on the levers of power in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), after losing an election

they were supposed to win "at all costs".





According to those selfsame NPP critics, that the Electoral Commissioner will

successfully defend his decision to declare President Mahama the winner of the 2012

presidential election in the Supreme Court, is now beyond any doubt for them -

having now seen what passes for evidence of 'fraud' that the Electoral Commissioner,

Dr. Afari-Djan, emphatically dismissed as "false" when first made by the NPP.





For us mere mortals, however, there is nothing to do but await the denouement of

this particular political melodrama - which some say the NPP might win an award

for, were it to be a work of fiction.





Perhaps patience might be needed in large doses by independent observers and pundits.





In the end, ordinary Ghanaians will no doubt know whether or not the NPP's

allegations of electoral 'fraud' on a massive scale were a mere fiction or not.





The question for independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians is: will they or will

they not stand up in court? We shall see. And all in good time.





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