Abuse of incumbency claims against Mahama baseless – Koku Anyidoho

The governing National Democratic Congress has dismissed claims the president is abusing incumbency with his accounting to the people tour.

A Deputy General Secretary of the party Koku Anyidoho said such claims are baseless because there is a thin line between the president’s official duties and duties as a presidential candidate.

President John Mahama is embarking on a tour dubbed Accounting to the People, a tour which has seen crisscross parts of the country, commissioning projects and touting his achievements as president.

He has also on numerous occasions appealed to the people he visited to renew his mandate given the infrastructural development he has executed.http://ghanapoliticsonline.com/

But his critics have accused him of exploiting his position as president.
The first to speak was the 2012 presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom who felt the president was campaigning when the Electoral Commission has yet to open nomination and to approve candidates for election 2016.

That he felt was an abuse of incumbency.
The New Patriotic Party shares similar concerns even though it believes there is a thin line between the president’s official duties and his campaign strategies.

A Deputy Director of Communications of the party Anthony Karbo said it was possible for the president to embark on his tours on private vehicles, something the late John Mills did in the year 2012.

But he added even if the president decided to travel on official vehicles fueled by the state he should not go on an all out campaign to tell people to vote for him when the campaign season has yet to officially begin.

In a rebuttal however the Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidoho said “we have run past this post as a nation.”

‘It happened in ex-president Rawlings’ era, Kufuor’s Mills and now president Mahama. How do you draw a line? There is a very thin line. We have not launched our party campaign but it doesn’t mean the president can’t work,” he said.

He said the president cannot go out without his security details protecting him, even if his tour is not an official one.
“It is an argument we can never win,” he said.