As the debate rages on possible postponement of the December 7, 2020 general elections in the midst of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, a Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo, has called for broader consultations of the stakeholders in order to build a consensus on the issue.
According to Prof. Gyampo, the destruction caused by the novel coronavirus disease requires that all actors of the political space to work closely with health officials, security and governance experts on the health, public safety, security risks, democratic and constitutional imperatives and implications of the decision to go ahead with the elections.
Gyampo was quoted by Daily Graphic on Thursday as saying that with the increasing number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 by today, there are concerns that the development could affect the conduct of the December 7, presidential and parliamentary elections.
On Thursday, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary, Mr. John Boadu, announced the suspension of parliamentary primaries in constituencies in which the party has sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) indefinitely as result of the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. The parliamentary primaries was scheduled for 25 April, 2020.
Last week, Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, a firebrand of the NPP called for the postponement of the December 7 elections, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it was fiercely resisted by Mr. Afriyie Ankrah, the chairman of the Electoral Committee of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), who explained that per the World Health Organization (WHO) prediction, the disease would recede by June, which might pave the way for the election to be held as scheduled.
Meanwhile, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, early this week cleared the air that the Parliament has not taken any decision on either to conduct the election or postpone it.
Ghana has recorded 641 confirmed cases and 78 recoveries with 8 deaths at the time of filing this report.
DAP/GIK/APA