The presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, has asked President Nana Akufo-Addo to ban political rallies as the second wave of coronavirus looms over the country.
Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, Mr Ayariga said although political campaigns are crucial to the 2020 general election, the disease still lingers and poses a serious threat to Ghanaians.
He, therefore, suggested that the President calls for a stop to all rallies with immediate effect to help Ghana win the fight against the pandemic.
“It is when we make laws as the government of the day, and we ignore them, then we are endangering the lives of the people we say we love. There are protocols to fight off Covid-19 and people were abiding by them. So why is that we the same people who instituted those laws are breaking those laws?
“So I think the President over the weekend should come out again and stop and ban all the rallies of political parties,” he stated.
His request follows the Coalition for Domestic Election Observers’ findings that political parties, mainly, the governing New Patriotic Party and opposition National Democratic have not done enough to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
According to the Coalition’s pre-election Environment Observation, political parties have disregarded the safety protocols against the spread of Covid-19 as far as political campaigns are concerned.
However, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has refuted these claims, stating that the onus lies on all Ghanaians in curbing the rate of spread.
