Resort to legal processes to seek redress- NALAG urges former President Mahama

The National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), has called on the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to go through the legal process to seek redress to what the party describes as electoral fraud.

Seeking legal redress at the Supreme Court, it said, was the only reliable path to seek redress if there were evidence of such electoral fraud.

“We have no doubt that given his democratic credentials, former President John Dramani Mahama will not depart from the necessary constitutional arrangements,” it stated.

Peaceful co-existence

The President of NALAG, Mr Bismark Baisie Nkum, made the call at a press conference in Accra last Monday.

“This election is the power of the thumb and not the power of the barrel of the gun, and so if there is a dispute, we wish to call on all those who have grievances to subject to judicial processes and get them resolved.

“This is the only way we can co-exist peacefully as family, friends and businesses thriving in an environment. We cannot, for the reason of an election dispute, have a chaotic situation that will retard our progress and development," he said.

Rejection of results

At a press conference on December 10, this year, Mr Mahama said he was unwilling to accept the "fictionalised" results of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections declared by the EC.

He accused the EC of manipulating the elections results, saying: "We will not accept anything short of a declaration of the legitimate results which points to an NDC Parliamentary majority."

2012 Precedence

Mr Nkum recalled that after former President Mahama was declared the winner of the 2012 presidential polls, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) rejected the outcome of the elections.

He said the then presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, resorted to the legal process at the Supreme Court, a hearing that lasted for eight months.

"The court finally gave the whole nation a verdict and the NPP presidential candidate consented to the court's decision and we had a peaceful country.

"So, it is the same call NALAG is making on the former President. We know his democratic credentials as he has contested and won elections as Member of Parliament (MP) and as an assembly member and we are speaking to him because he has been our member once,” he said.

Confidence 

Mr Nkum congratulated the president-elect and the NPP for securing the mandate of Ghanaians to form and run the government on another four-year term.

He, however, said it was incumbent on the President-elect to justify the confidence Ghanaians had reposed in him by implementing more policies and programmes that would inure to the benefit and general welfare of the people.

“Let the dreams and hopes of our people be achieved and we encourage you to advance the course of industrialisation, which is a way to processing our raw materials to maximise our national wealth and stabilise the economy,” he said.