Many well-meaning Ghanaians including former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor have called for consensus building among all stakeholders to ensure confidence in all electoral processes and the general acceptance of electoral results as the nation inches towards the December 7, 2020 polls.
Their call followed entrenched positions taken by the various stakeholders on the declaration by the Electoral Commission (EC) that it will compile a new voters’ register for the upcoming general election and beyond.
While the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its allies have consistently advocated the compilation of the new electoral roll, its main opponents, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with its groupings, has strongly kicked against the move.
Consequently, the main opposition party through its agents, has taken the issue to the Supreme Court, in an attempt to halt the EC from compilation the new register.
The litigation in court, of this tempestuous matter, in our view, is not a plausible ingredient for consensus building.
We do not believe there can be consensus a matter when one side is contesting same in court.
The two sides have not exhibited any signs of letting go their rooted positions and therefore the only consensus now is for the contesting parties to wait and accept the legal position of the highest court of the land.
We are all obliged to go by the dictates of the constitution and the constitutional interpretation of laws relating to the compilation of the new voters’ register will hopefully put the matter to rest.
All parties including the country’s election management body would and must abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court on this matter.
As we indicated earlier, this will be the only way to enforce consensus and put the issue to a permanent rest.
Any subsequent disagreement without the recourse to due process of law, will be tantamount to lawlessness.
We cannot continue to beat war drums and polarise the country ahead of the ahead of the 2020 polls.
