Politics of Tuesday, 29 December 2020
Source: rainbowradioonline.com
Running mate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Kofi Asamoah-Siaw has opined that it has become obvious that the Electoral Commission (EC) rigged the Techiman South parliamentary polls in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr. Asamoah-Siaw says it has become obvious that the NPP did not win the polls but connived with the EC to rig it in their favour.
He wrote; “It is becoming very obvious that the New Patriotic Party did not win the Techiman South Parliamentary seat. Yet, every attempt is being made to steal that seat from the National Democratic Congress. I am not a member of the NDC, but as a citizen interested to serve in public service through politics, I consider it extremely unfair, treasonable, unjust and a dangerous threat to our democracy to allow my good friend, Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah to be sworn-in as a Member of Parliament.”
In an opinion piece, Mr. Asamoah-Siaw indicated that people know the truth but for the sake of politics, they have refused to speak up.
“We all know the truth, but for politics of convenience and other interests, we have feigned ignorance and allowing the national interest to be compromised.”
He slammed the EC Chairperson questioning why her outfit has failed to publish the declared results for the constituency.
“My biggest disappointment, as a believer in public service, in Mrs Jean Mensah, is her manifest refusal to publish the “collated” parliamentary results for Techiman South as dictated by CI 127, her own drafted legislation for election 2020. (For the records, I took the same principled and independent stance when her predecessor, Madam Charlotte Osei manifestly ignored provisions of CI 94 to unnecessarily disqualify the PPP’s Presidential Candidate in the run up to the 2016 elections).”
Read his full piece below;
Techiman South & Related Matters
In this write up, I will mention the names and titles or positions of key public figures and public officers and call on them to be sincere and truthful to us the people of Ghana as we attempt to resolve the controversy over the outcome of the 2020 parliamentary elections in the Techiman South constituency.
This is important to me because our inability to resolve the the Techiman South controversy fairly, justly and timely will be an endorsement, by the people I will name herein, of the culture of abuse of power, hypocrisy, selfishness and sometimes utter dishonesty and recklessness. Those who pursue these “cultural elements” and their collaborators should know, if they do not already know, that their actions and/or inactions threaten our democracy.
I am naming and calling on the following people to do the right thing and put the national interest first and foremost above all personal, partisan, emotional, ethnic, religious or any other interest.
The people on my list, among others, include His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, H.E. Vice President Dr. Bawumia, Ministers of State, the Speaker and all Members of Parliament, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Inspector General of Police, the Chief Justice and Judges of the Superior Courts of Ghana, the entire membership of the Peace Council, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Christian Council, the Pentecostal Council, the Attorney-General and her Deputy, my own “Santa-mate” and respected legal brain Godfred Yeboah Dame, the entire media especially the GJA President Affail Monney, Bernard Avle of CitiFM, Winston Amoah of JoyFM, Kwame Sefa Kayi of Peace FM, Kwaku Baako Jnr of the New Crusading Guide, the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Mrs. Jean Mensah and her commissioners among other important senior citizens and ordinary citizens of this our beloved country.
It is becoming very obvious that the New Patriotic Party did not win the Techiman South Parliamentary seat. Yet, every attempt is being made to steal that seat from the National Democratic Congress. I am not a member of the NDC, but as a citizen interested to serve in public service through politics, I consider it extremely unfair, treasonable, unjust and a dangerous threat to our democracy to allow my good friend, Martin Agyei Mensah Korsah to be sworn-in as a Member of Parliament.
We all know the truth, but for politics of convenience and other interests, we have feigned ignorance and allowing the national interest to be compromised.
My biggest disappointment, as a believer in public service, in Mrs Jean Mensah, is her manifest refusal to publish the “collated” parliamentary results for Techiman South as dictated by CI 127, her own drafted legislation for election 2020. (For the records, I took the same principled and independent stance when her predecessor, Madam Charlotte Osei manifestly ignored provisions of CI 94 to unnecessarily disqualify the PPP’s Presidential Candidate in the run up to the 2016 elections).
The attitude of Mrs. Jean Mensah in this matter appear to me an attempt to “assist”, “aid” or “collaborate” with the New Patriotic Party to unjustly appropriate a seat in their unholy bid to seure a majority in parliament.
I thought politics is about honestly participating in the democratic process, allowing the citizens to elect their representatives freely and allowing that democratic choices to stand without any form of manipulation. If we do not want to do that, then we might as well forget this our democratic enterprise.
I like public service and active politics but I like to do politics that is in the national interest. If any other interest conflicts with the national interest, I have made a personal decision that the national interest must remain supreme. It is in this respect, that I call on the important people named herein to think Ghana first and correct the obvious injustice in the Techiman South Constituency. It will be unacceptable to allow the EC to perpetuate an obvious injustice, allow Martin Korsah to be sworn-in in as an MP and ask the victims of a fraudulent declaration to rather go to court when we all know what it means to go to court at this stage.
All the eminent names I mentioned owe it to the nation Ghana to let the EC do the right thing. If the EC cannot publish the collation sheet and the summary sheet for Techiman South Parliamentary Elections, why should we accept it as normal and occasion a clear act of injustice?
Injustice anywhere is a threat to peace everywhere, so we must as a country put Ghana first ahead of any parochial interest we may have.
State power, we were taught in school by Professors Mike Oquaye, Gyimah-Boadi, Boafo Arthur, Ninsin, Keith Bluwey, Yao Gebe, Antwi Danso etc, is to be exercised in the pursuit of the national interest. We were also taught that political parties exist to pursue their interest; which is to win and maintain political power.
However, level headed politicians, senior public officers, heads of security services, the clergy, the media and other citizens have a duty to ensure that the pursuit of partisan and other interests do not compromise the national interest. The national interest at stake here is that the right winner of the Techiman South Constituency Parliamentary Elections be declared by the EC before the next parliament is sworn-in.
I therefore conclude by calling on the eminent citizens named herein to make sure that the Techiman South Constituency Parliamentary election results are properly collated and declared for the right winner before a wrong person is sworn-in.