Former President and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has expressed his displeasure over the country’s current state of democracy.
The country usually regarded as the beacon of democracy in Africa is gradually becoming a bad model, the former president said during his tour in the Northern Region.
It appears he was speaking in reference to the current standof between the speaker of parliament and the supreme court regarding some four parliamentary seats that were declared vacant by the speaker recently. The flagbearer has on several occasions expressed disappointment in the judicial system, claiming it has been set up to do the bidding of the ruling party.
During his campaign in the Northern Region, Mahama questioned the independence of the judiciary and other state institutions.
“Anywhere I go, the question people outside Ghana ask me is ‘Ghana, what happened to you? Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, what happened to you?
“Everybody looked up to Ghana as the model of democracy, today, we are a bad model of democracy, our judiciary is not independent, all our state institutions have been destroyed, people looked up to Ghana as a country that is a model of economic management, today, our economy is in shambles,” he said.
His comments follow particularly the Supreme Court’s recent rule that refused to acknowledge the speaker’s decision to declare some four seats vacant following indications that the said four MPs had decided to become independent candidates.
A legal action initiated by the NPP caucus in parliament saw the speaker’s rule injuncted upon pending a final determination of the case.
In response, the Speaker filed a lawsuit to reverse the court’s decision to halt his declaration of the four parliamentary seats as vacant.
Among other factors, the Speaker’s legal team contended that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction in this particular case.
However, the Supreme Court insisted that its previous decision was justified, declaring that the Speaker’s appeal lacked merit, after hearing arguments from all sides, including the Attorney General and Minister for Justice.
Source: Dehotpress
Thank you for reading from Dehotpress, a Ghanaian news website. You are welcome to share this story on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and you can also follow us there.
Discussion about this post