Retired diplomat, K.B. Asante has bemoaned the winner-takes-all mentality in Ghana's politics. For him, winning an election in Ghana today could be likened to the winning of lottery where a winner takes charge of the without recourse to anybody which should not be the case.Â
"Winning an election is not winning lotto. When you win, it is not a winner-takes-all situation", he stated.
There have been reports of widespread attacks on supporter of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by their counterparts from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the latter attempt to take control of state facilities because they won power.
Indeed, some of these rampaging supporters of the NPP have managed to seize facilities like toll booths, public toilets, among others to the chagrin the NDC's supporters who were manning the facilities.
While the NDC has been accusing the NPP leadership, especially President Nana Akufo-Addo of looking on unconcerned, the NPP has often referred them to similar occurrences in 2009 when the NDC won power and also maintained that since the attacks and seizures are unlawful, the police must handle the issues.
But according to him, the winner-takes-all mindset emboldens supporters of parties which emerge victorious in elections to attack their opponents in a bid to take over state properties and must be discouraged in order to stop such attacks.
Though he agrees with the NPP's position that the police must be allowed to be in charge of such matters, he was of the opinion that they have not been bold enough.
"In Ghana, the body that is charged with enforcing the law is the police. They must be bold enough to do it [because] if the police cannot do their job, [then] there's a big problem", he cautioned.
He further added that, "if the police is even perceived not to be doing their job, then we are in trouble".
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