Law on causing financial loss need review-

Kumasi (A/R), June 22, GNA- Mr John Dramani Mahama, running mate to Professor John Evans Atta Mills, flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Saturday said the law on causing financial loss to the state should be subjected to a dispassionate national debate for its possible review.

He said, "In my opinion the law is too elastic and its maintenance on the statute books could be capriciously applied to political opponents on the flimsiest excuse".

Speaking at a press soiree he held for journalists in Kumasi as part of his four-day tour of the city, Mr. Mahama said the danger in the law was while the New patriotic party (NPP) was prosecuting those who served in the previous NDC government, it was neglecting current office holders who were alleged to be causing more financial loss to the country.

He said, if that trend continued, and if the NDC also came to power and begun to apply the law, its actions would be seen as vindictive.

"It means that this cycle of vindictiveness would continue to be recycled and this will not augur well for unity and peace". Mr Mahama said the Judiciary remained the last resort to civil liberties and the promotion of democracy based on the rule of law and that the NDC believed in those principles.

He said, "People may have misgivings about a particular judgment and could express that feeling openly and this did not mean that they've lost confidence in the Judiciary and the NDC stands for that." Mr. Mahama said gone were the days when political activists of Ghana had gone into exile anytime there was a change of government, adding that, under the current constitutional dispensation there was no need for anyone to go into exile and that the NDC would continue with the development of the country where the current government might have left off.

"The NDC would not adopt the saying that, the stick that was used in beating Takyi would be the same one which would be used for beating Baah."

Mr Mahama said the constitutional obligation that made the President to choose 50 percent of ministers from the Legislature needed to be reviewed and that the President should be given a free hand to choose his ministers from in and outside Parliament He said additional responsibilities to the onerous duties as a cabinet minister could affect his or her performance, either to his constituents or that he could become an ineffective minister. To a question, Mr. Mahama said it must be acknowledged that former President J.J Rawlings is a great leader and that the NDC cannot in anyway marginalize him.

"What is this micro barometer that when he's (Rawlings) seen in public with the party, then it is said that he is dictating to it, and when he has taken the backstage position then it is said that the party is ignoring him."