A member of the New Patriotic Party legal team, Gloria Akufo says President John Mahama’s songs in praise of the Electoral Commission during his State of the Nation address in Parliament were not only improper but in contempt of the Supreme Court hearing the Presidential Election Petition.
In his address the president said the EC’s performance in the 2012 General Elections has been adjudged by both local and international observers as the “most credible; transparent free and fair since 1992.”
He said the EC at all times and in all cases conferred victory where victory was due without fear or favour citing the closely fought elections in 2000, 2008 and 2012.
President John Mahama said the excellent performance by the EC has earned it an enviable reputation across the African sub-region.
But the president’s comments have ruffled the nerves of some members of the NPP legal team.
Gloria Akufo told Joy News the president ought not to have used a platform as serious as Parliament to shower praises on the EC which is in court for allegedly supervising an election pregnant with irregularities.
She said President Mahama’s comments were to say the least contemptuous.
“We have raised issues about the competence of the EC,” she said, adding so for the “president to use the platform of Parliament to seek to commend the EC for an election that is being challenged in court is wrong.”
Gloria Akufo said even more disappointing is the fact that the president who is showering the praises on the EC, is himself a party in the case and that makes his comments distasteful.
“I don’t know whose idea it is for the president to say what he said; “I don’t know the motive for it but what I do know is that it is contemptuous.”
But a member of the NDC legal team, Kojogah Adawudu has described as “laughable” the comments by Gloria Akufo.