Parliament of Ghana
Is our Ghanaian society today degenerating into one that settles for flawed choices due to hidden Truths? It goes without saying that the court deals with facts and evidence and not conjecture and rumour, as opined by a senior journalist last week on Peace FM, an Accra Radio Station. However, facts and evidence do not necessarily mean Truth.
The question is; should society be built on Truth or Facts/Evidence? Ideally, the belief is that Truth should always be sacrosanct and held in higher esteem than Facts/Evidence. Truth Stands, they say! Subsequently, if Truth cannot be achieved under any circumstance, then we settle for or make do with what is factual (proven to be constitutional or evidential) – attainable in the court.
For instance, if a watch is perceived to have been stolen by someone who admits stealing or is willing to genuinely prove it wasn’t stolen and it actually belongs to him, why will there be the need for a tortuous court proceeding when the Truth has or can be established. But when you have a situation where the one perceived to have stolen is denying and yet, not willing to genuinely prove not to have stolen, the perception is only fuelled. The willingness to prove to everyone not only in court is therefore key!
In fact, in the instance relating to the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), they are not only denying to have stolen the “watch” but they are so unwilling to engage their accusers that they even refused to receive a harmless petition by the NDC MPs to genuinely prove they have not stolen at the administrative level. They (EC) point them to “Go to Court” which obviously will delay to an extent that by the time the “watch” is determined by the court to have been stolen and therefore returned to the rightful owner, it will be of no significant use.
To be fair, it may well be that the EC have the Facts/Evidence (which is what the court looks for) and that may be why they only give the option of “Go to Court”. However, these Facts/Evidence that the EC have may not necessarily be the Truth which may also be why they are unwilling to prove they genuinely did not compromise the integrity of the election results.
Why the EC will refuse to grant the NDC a mere recount and collation of results at Techiman South and only leave them with the option of “Go to Court” but will be willing to grant the NPP recount and re-recount of votes even after collation in Banda beats my imagination.
Why the EC will refuse to follow a convention of re-voting at polling stations where a ballot box is destroyed like in Sefwi-Wiawso to ensure and prove that every vote counts in electing who should represent a constituency and leave their accusers with the option of “Go to Court” beats my imagination.
Why the EC will not proactively take steps to ensure that all constituents vote to choose who their MP should be but deny the people of SALL this fundamental right and leave them with the option of “Go to Court” once again beats my imagination. To state but a few.
Where it becomes problematic is that on the 7th of January 2021, the 8th Parliament will be inaugurated, though some of the cases are already in court, a speaker will have to be appointed by the Majority side which cannot practically be changed even if the composition (which currently stands at 137-137-1 for NPP, NDC and Independent respectively) of the house changes after the court processes and the whole House of Law Makers would have settled for a “Flawed Speaker”.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, ‘In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing’. The onus, therefore, is on all patriotic citizens especially the neutrals, the peace brokers, the elders, the media etc. to at least SHOUT! I’ve done mine.
