President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice, Justice Edward Asante, has warned that the recent political upheavals in Guinea and Mali portend grave danger to the consolidation of democratic governance in the region.
He gave the warning at a ceremony organised by the United Nations Association of Ghana (UNA-Ghana) to mark the UN International Democracy Day in Accra, Ghana.
The military recently removed Alpha Condé from office as President of Guinea, one year after President Ibrahim Keïta of Mali was forced to resign amid nationwide protests over a disputed legislative election, the worsening Covid-19 outbreak, and insurgency.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the African Union condemned the recent coup and demanded the immediate release of the president.
‘I strongly condemn any takeover of the government by force of the gun and call for the immediate release of President Alpha Condé’, Guterres tweeted.
In its immediate reaction, ECOWAS threatened to impose sanctions after what its chairman, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, called an attempted coup.
For his part, Justice Asante said the developments in the countries were ‘particularly disconcerting’.
‘[The] disruptions are indicative of a malaise with our approach to multi-party democracy, whose normative underpinnings such as zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government, abolition of tenure elongation beyond the two terms of office, the conduct of free, fair and credible elections as well as the scrupulous adherence to the separation of powers are under threat’, he said.
He challenged the UNA-Ghana to reflect on how it could leverage its network to contribute towards the effort to salvage the region’s democracy.
Source: New Dawn Liberia
Photo source: U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa
