Don't Abuse Incumbency - Kofi Asamoah

The acting Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, has urged the government to resist every temptation to abuse its incumbency in the run up to the general election. He also requested political leaders to engage in responsible campaigns and avoid creating a siege mentality among their followers that the December elections were a matter of life and death. Speaking on the theme, "Deepening Democracy in Ghana: The Role of Organised Labour", at this year's May Day celebration in Accra yesterday, Mr Asamoah said the temptation to abuse incumbency is a matter over which there can be no negotiation.” He also underscored the need for the independence of the Electoral Commission, (EC) to be maintained at all cost and said the conditions that generally fostered the deepening of democracy included maintaining the independence of the EC. "Under no circumstance should the independence of the EC be compromised," he stated. Mr Asamoah said the EC also had to be faithful to its constitutional mandate and guard its independence jealously, as it bore the heavy responsibility of winning the nation's confidence in its integrity as an impartial referee to steer the country through free, fair and transparent elections. He charged the mass media to live up to their responsibility of fair and objective reportage of political news and events during the run up to the elections to enable the citizens make informed choices. Mr Asamoah emphasised that trade unions and other civil society organisations should serve as watchdogs over the people's interest and be whistle blowers of "any untoward development that may undermine the integrity of the December elections". Mr Asamoah said consolidating democracy entailed much more than election every four years, adding that it encompassed regular political processes of governance that continued daily and yearly in between national elections. On the labour front, Mr Asamoah said recent developments on the labour scene, especially the judgement of the Accra Fast Track High Court that employers could terminate the employment of their employees without giving any reason, had the effect of severely undermining the compromise and consensus reached in the various tripartite consultations and deliberations which led to the passage of the Labour Law.