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The President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has come under intense criticism for what a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) describes as a hypocritical attitude, following his intervention in the Togolese Presidential elections.

President Mahama in his capacity as the chairman of the Regional block, ECOWAS, held broad consultative meetings with various stakeholders in the neighbouring country, aimed at ensuring free, fair and transparent polls. Amongst the major topical issues of discussion was the Voters’ Register and the reported intervention by the ECOWAS Chairman which averted what could have been a possible chaos following the opposition party’s concerns about the credibility of the register.

However, the President’s action has been interpreted as a clear case of the proverbial ostrich, as he has failed to deal with similar cases confronting his own country. Speaking to The Chronicle in an interview, a founding member of the party, Mr. George Ayisi Boateng, questioned the conscience of the President, stressing that he has no moral right to have made the call for the reconciliation of the electoral register, when he has failed to do so in his own country.

“We want to tell President Mahama to remove the pebbles in his eyes before he tells other countries to do so. What has he done in his own country to resolve the numerous electoral challenges. Has he told his own party, which is against the electoral reforms proposed by the Supreme Court to change their stand, this is sheer hypocrisy,” Mr. Ayisi Boateng busted.

According to him, various political parties, civil society groups and other high profile personalities have expressed major concerns about the fact that the current voter register is bloated and must, therefore, be reviewed, but yet the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan remains adamant, under the nose of His Excellency, President Mahama.

“There is a saying that he who goes to equity must come with clean hands and I want to ask President Mahama if indeed he has that clean hands when going to Togo,” the NPP leading member queried. He said if the President had good reasons to listen to the opposition leaders in Togo, then he must do same in his own backyard and stop the double standard attitude.

Mr. Ayisi Boateng further made an appeal to the Council of State, Members of the Peace Council, Traditional Rulers, and Religious leadership to make their voices heard in the ongoing discussion in order to sanitize Ghana’s electoral process ahead of the 2016 general elections.

He added that Nana Akufo Addo, the Presidential Candidate and his running mate, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia have vowed not to go to court again but would continue to push for right level political playing field where the referee, the EC and its staff, would do a diligent work for the good people of Ghana. “We need to avoid a situation whereby before, during and after the elections there would be monotonous call for peace from any quarters of the country,” he noted.