Ransford Gyampo, an associate professor at the University of Ghana, Legon, has lashed out at the Speaker of Parliament over recent comments about Election 2020.
Gyampo was reacting to a statement attributed to Alban Bagbin, to the effect that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was bent on deploying any tactics to win seats during the December elections, because Parliament had gone in favour of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking with Kojo Mensah on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Friday (20 August), Gyampo said: “For a whole Speaker to be saying this, I mean, it’s a bit problematic, because he is not able to adduce clear evidence to support whatever he is saying.
“If you do that it undermines the expected neutrality.
“Bagbin is expected to be a very firm and neutral person who will not even do the bidding of his own party, and he sounded that caution. And if he begins to make such statements not backed by evidence, you open yourself up for needless criticisms,” he said.
Rise above petty partisanship
John Boadu, the general secretary of the NPP, has described the Speaker’s claims as false.
“As to how on Earth Alban Bagbin and the NDC would interpret this analysis, which was based on facts and data at the time, to mean that John Boadu was conceding that the NPP had lost the nationwide parliamentary elections to the NDC, [that] can only be a monumental defiance of logic.
“In any case, are the two main political parties not in court challenging one parliamentary election result or another? So, going by their logic, is the NDC also resorting to unorthodox means to seek to illegally overturn the parliamentary results in those constituencies they are challenging?” asked a statement issued in Boadu’s name.
“Once again, for the avoidance of doubt, the general secretary of the governing NPP made no such suggestion or announcement as claimed by the Speaker of Parliament,” the statement said.
“Accordingly, Mr John Boadu, while advising the Rt Hon Speaker to rise above petty partisanship, is also entreating members of the general public to treat his recent unsubstantiated claim with all the disdain that it deserves.”
Fred Dzakpata
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