Ten of the 12 political parties that contested this year’s elections say they will meet the President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and former President John Mahama to impress upon them to ensure that the country remains peaceful.
The meeting, they said, had been necessitated by recent developments over the outcome of the results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) with members of the main opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), taking to the streets in some parts of the country to protest against the decision.
The parties to meet President Akufo-Addo and former President Mahama are the All People’s Congress (APC), Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Convention (PNC), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), National Democratic Party (NDP) the Ghana Union Movement and Mr Asiedu Walker, an independent candidate.
Spokesperson
The Spokesperson of the group of political parties, Mr Hassan Ayariga, who was a flag bearer of the APC, told the Daily Graphic that the parties would be meeting Mr Mahama first after which they would meet President Akufo-Addo.
He said the meeting with Mr Mahama was scheduled for last Friday but because he had other engagements with the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Ms Stephanie Sullivan, and other ambassadors, the meeting could not come off.
Mr Ayariga noted that in 2012, he organised a similar meeting during the election petition “when we met then candidate Akufo-Addo to appeal to him to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court no matter which way it went and later met President Mahama”.
Tension
“We think there’s a lot of tension and demonstrations in town coming from the quarters of the NDC.”
“The point here is that we want to appeal to Mr Mahama to also speak to his people to calm down and let peace prevail. We are not the ones to tell Mr Mahama to either accept defeat or not. That is not our stand. Whether Mr Mahama accepts defeat or not, that one is not what we are calling on him to do,” he said.
Mr Ayariga appealed to the media not to telecast scenes of violence since that was likely to encourage others to do something similar, thereby leading to chaos and destruction.
Demonstration
In the case of the NDC, he said “nobody is saying that they should not go on demonstration . . . but when you burn all these tyres and it gets out of hand and the police and military engage you, what do you think will happen?”
“We are saying we want a peaceful country. Is that too much to ask for?” he asked.
