Former President John Mahama has denied claim by President Akufo-Addo that there was a consensus at the close door meeting with his successor on the December 17 Referendum.
President Akufo-Addo had said a meeting he had with the three former presidents -John Rawlings, John Kufuor and John Mahama- on April 18, 2017, ended with a general agreement that political parties be allowed to participate in local assembly elections.
“I came away from that meeting with the view that there was consensus amongst us that the time had come for political parties to participate openly in district assembly elections and local governance,” the President said.
Giving details of his Jubilee House meeting with the former Presidents and the current President, President Mahama insisted that there was no consensus at the close door meeting.
John Mahama in an interview with JoyNews described President Akufo-Addo’s comments as “unfortunate” and suggested the President lied,
“I think it was unfortunate for him to have said that it was hypocrisy on the side of the NDC,that was wrong. It was not only the NDC that rejected, but the Catholic Bishops also said ‘no’ the National House of Chiefs said ‘no’ and these are no mean institutions in Ghana. And so he cannot accuse people of hypocrisy just because they hold a different viewpoint from he had intended.”, John Mahama stated.
The leader of the NDC also revealed that “President Kufuor was for political party participation in the election of MMDCEs [but]…I took the stance of the Fiadjoe Committee that we should still keep political parties out, that we can achieve the election of our DCEs without political party participation”.
John Mahama explained that “President Rawlings did not express any firm stand, but on that particular matter, there was no consensus, even though we discussed it, there was consultation [but] there was no consensus.”
President Akufo-Addo announced a withdrawal of the contentious referendum in a national broadcast on Sunday night.
The referendum had sought to amend Article 243(1) and Article 55(3) of the 1992 Constitution to enable MMDCEs and unit committee members to be elected along political party lines.
