Need for more collaboration between the Judiciary and Executive

President John Evans Atta Mills on Thursday called for more collaboration between the Judiciary and Executive to rid the country of corruption, drugs and other harmful activities that reflected negatively on governance.

He said "In most of these matters that reflect negatively on governance, the Judiciary with the mandate to dispense justice, and the Executive with the mandate to implement the law, must act as partners engaged in a collective effort to rid the country of corruption, drugs and other harmful activities".

President Mills emphasised that any perception that the Judiciary was on the side of wrongdoers undermined democracy and institutions of democracy and "Urged justices to live up to the noble calling of independent arbiters".

He made the call when delivering the State of the Nation address in Parliament.

"As an arm of government, it is your responsibility to rid the society of criminal elements, thereby ensuring justice for the citizenry and other persons."

On Election 2012, President Mills said there were four critical matters that should engage attention, these were, the Judiciary’s role in the settlement of election disputes expeditiously, to move forward the democratic process.

Secondly, role of the media polarised or not; aligned or not; biased or not; the Ghanaian media has a responsibility to work to preserve Ghana’s democracy.

“I have confidence in the ability of my brothers and sisters in the media to rise to the occasion, on the perception of polarisation, alignment and bias, however, the media has to speak for itself through its deeds.”

President Mills said thirdly, the state of industrial relations in an election year "It is often the case that in election year, labour demands escalate to such an extent that they do not only create industrial tension but also ultimately prove economically very costly to the nation".

He appealed to the tripartite partners in labour negotiations this year to have an eye on the national interest and ensure that they created the kind of labour environment that would engender peaceful elections and post-election stability in the country.

President Mills said fourthly, chieftaincy disputes and ethnic conflict as the country had had a fair share of these problems in some parts of the country, as in some instances had resulted in loss of lives and destruction to property.

He tasked the security services to be proactive in dealing with those who for reasons of political expediency might want to escalate chieftaincy or ethnic tensions.

President Mills assured Ghanaians that "Whatever be the case, we expect this year’s elections to be free and fair, free from fear, transparent and with the results acceptable to and accepted by all, adding that government will do all in our power to support the Electoral Commission and whatever the security challenges will not be found wanting because the sovereign will of the people reign supreme".

He called on leadership of political parties to remain calm and show proof of genuine commitment to peace by their utterances and actions and stated that "The stability we enjoy as a country can turn instantly to brittleness if we fail to be circumspect and check those who might want to hold the country to ransom.

"The government is intent on continuing with the pace of development right until the election period, though it is true that we will have to campaign at some point in time but I promise you this will not be at the expense of pushing the Better Ghana Agenda’ and would not sacrifice the gains we have made on the economic front on the altar of election year politics."

President Mills said "Even as we seek to promote our respective political ideologies, we must be willing to synthesise the best ideas from both sides of the House for the advancement of the country and must all be willing to put aside unnecessary partisanship and keep in mind the big picture of how to sustain together our middle-income status through sustainable economic development".

"That will be the multi-party democracy dividend for which we all continue to toil in the name of Mother Ghana," he added.