National Democratic Congress flagbearer John Dramani Mahama has emphasised the importance of appointing fair-minded individuals to Ghana’s highest court, the Supreme Court.

In response to a question on whether he would appoint only lawyers sympathetic to the NDC during an engagement with the media on July 7, Mahama highlighted the necessity of selecting candidates based on criteria that prioritise fairness and impartiality.

He further underscored the need to have judges who can set aside their personal prejudices and uphold justice without bias.

Regarding the Chief Justice’s recommendation to the president to appoint 5 High Court judges to the Supreme Court, Mahama expressed concern that the constitutional processes for judicial appointments may not have been followed as expected.

“I think that the obligation and responsibility of every president is to appoint fair minded people. Human beings as we are we have our own inclinations towards one party, or towards one religion, or towards one culture or other. There are many things that makes us who we are but the obligation on when you become a judge is to look at the cold hard facts and rule based on that.

“Some of the pushbacks that we are seeing currently is the penchant by this president to pack the courts. And only recently we’ve seen what happened. I can’t understand why the chief justice will be the one recommending, you know, which judges to appoint.

“The constitution is clear that it’s the president who appoints judges with the advice of the council so the initiative to appoint judges must come from the president and submitted to the judicial council. He brings it back with advice to the president and the president forwards it to parliament, that is the procedure. It is very rare that this time the recommendation comes from the chief justice to the president.

“The president of this country has a lot discretionary powers but that discretionary power must be exercised with responsibility and make sure that when you’re appointing people unto the judiciary which has security of tenure, until they reach 65 or 70 or whatever age is recommended, you cannot remove them unless for state treason. And so appointing people to such powerful positions where they are the arbiter of whatever happens in this country, we must make sure that we use a criteria of fair minded people and put their prejudices aside and be able to judge fairly”, he posited.

MAG/NOQ

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