The Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, has, in a letter to the Chairman of the National Media Commission, expressed its objection to a planned nationwide broadcast by President Mahama at 8pm Thursday.
According to the NPP Chairman, President Mahama’s remarks purportedly will be confined to the subject of peaceful elections, “but we have no assurances that will be the case and no opportunity for sanction if they are not.”
This move by the President, according to Jake Obetsebi Lamptey is a contravention of law and flouting of the media blackout to which all campaigns agreed.
“The President’s plan is nothing more than a blatant attempt to distort public perception on the very eve of the election. We cite as an example, the fact that former President John Agyekum Kufuor, when seeking re-election as an incumbent in 2004, did not address the nation on the eve of the election, knowing too well that such action would have amounted to a blatant abuse of incumbency”, Jake said.
The NPP Chairman charged the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and the National Media Commission to take an all-or-nothing approach: “either the candidates appear jointly to pledge peace and read a brief statement together, or none of them appear at all.”
To allow one candidate an unfair advantage to promote himself, according to Jake, when allegiance to a media blackout is the legal and accepted course of action, would be a dereliction of duty on the part of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and the National Media Commission.
NPP Communications Directorate
