General News of Thursday, 10 January 2013
Source: graphic.com.gh
The 2012 Presidential Candidate for the Conventions People’s Party (CPP), has urged President John Mahama to ensure that those using legitimate means to challenge his legitimacy are not maligned or intimidated.
According to Dr Abu Sakara Foster, “this would remove all doubt about his victory in the 2012 general elections and also deepen the country’s democracy”.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, he said “if a group of people or person feel unconvinced about election results, they are entitled to use all legal means to address their grievances and therefore must be allowed to do so”.
Dr Sakara who secured the sixth position with 20,323 votes during the 2012 elections, emphasised the need for issues to be addressed in a manner devoid of any outside influence but the law only.
“This is very important because not only will this authenticate the election result but also go a long way to unify the nation knowing that the majority preferred the president-elect” he said.
Dr Sakara said the President should put behind his victory and work hard to unify the nation and ensure that the best of the country’s human resources were allowed to contribute to the growth and development of the country.
That, he said, could be achieved if the government refrained from discriminating against people who did not rally behind his leadership during the elections.
“Much focus should be placed on how to promote quality partnership among all the people, including the political parties who lost the elections. They must not be rejected because they did not endorse or support a particular party,”he said.
He said there should be an internal approach on the part of the President to get every Ghanaian involved in the development and growth of the country, stressing that “using the best of abilities in the country irrespective of their background or political affiliation is a key to growth”.