Ghanatodayonline.com News, Politics, Health, Education & More
President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked Ghanaians to vote against John Dramani Mahama, a former head of state who is running for president in 2024 as the NDC.
On Monday, September 11, 2023, at the Ghana Bar Association’s 2023 Bar Conference, the President noted that the political affiliation of judges is an acceptable issue of public discussion in several common law nations, particularly in the United States of America.
“Indeed, judges at the District and State levels, within the federal structure of the American Government, are elected officials, and, even though judges at the federal level, including those of the Federal Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court, are appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, their political colouring is generally well-known and accepted,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said that historically, this has not been the case in Ghana, in large part because the Judicial Council, a nonpartisan body presided over by the Chief Justice, plays a crucial, controlling role in the procedure for judicial nominations.
“It has meant that judicial appointments are conducted essentially on the basis of professional merit and suitability. Appointments to the lower courts, the High Court and the Court of Appeal are done by the President, exclusively on the advice of the Judicial Council,” he said.
The President continued, “In the case of appointments to the Supreme Court, because of its unique position in our judicial structure, there are the additional requirements of the consultation of the Council of State and the approval of Parliament. In the overwhelming number of cases of justices-designate to the Supreme Court, that approval has been given on a bi-partisan basis. You can count on the fingers of a hand the number of justices-designate whose approval met less than unanimous consent.”
The President made it clear that he needed to get into the issue in more detail since a novel idea had lately entered our public conversation thanks to none other than John Dramani Mahama, the steadfast NDC presidential candidate and the fourth president of the fourth republic.
In a meeting with NDC lawyers, the former president said that President Akufo-Addo had overloaded the judiciary with so-called “NPP judges” and that one of the main goals of a hypothetical NDC triumph in 2024 would be to allow him to balance the courts with so-called “NDC judges.”
“Not only are these concepts of “NPP” and “NDC” judges new in our public discourse, they are also extremely dangerous, and represent the most brazen attack on the independence of the judiciary by any allegedly responsible politician of the 4th Republic. They provide another reason, if more were needed, why right-thinking citizens should ensure the defeat in 2024 of the man whom the first Special Prosecutor identified as Government Official No.1, in the still unresolved Airbus Bribery Scandal,” President said.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
