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General News of Friday, 11 January 2013

Source: The Enquirer Newspaper

NPP is a total disgrace to Ghana- Kofi Wayo

The Founder and Leader of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Chuck Kofi Wayo, has poured scorn on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as an ugly embarrassment to the international reputation of Ghana.

In an exclusive interview with The Enquirer in Accra yesterday, straight talking Mr Wayo reviewed various actions that the party had taken to drive home its disgruntlement with the outcome of the 2012 elections, including the attack on AU Chairman, Yayi Boni, as a string of faux pas that unfortunately rubs on Ghana.

“How can a party of well educated lawyers economists and business people like that elude themselves with claims of rigging in an election which has been certified by the whole world as free and faire and then proceed to support such claims with such unruly behavior, attacking everybody including the AU Chairman?” Mr Wayo lamented.

The URP founder was particularly unhappy with what he said were unmerited question marks that the NPP’s actions had generated in some foreign media about the credibility of the Electoral Commission after it lost the election.

Following its first round defeat in the 2012 presidential elections, the NPP took to disputing the result on the basis of its allegation that results that had been certified by its own polling agents, had somehow been manipulated by the Electoral Commission to give an easy win to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

While the allegation has come as farfetched because Ghana’s first ever biometric-based electioneering process had been observed and passed by both international and local observers, the NPP has been very uncompressing in efforts to hit home their disgruntlement-in spite of intent to dispute the election in court.

In the immediate aftermath of the elections in December, supporters of the party were incited to take to the streets of Accra to beat and stab anybody that was seen clad in the paraphernalia of the NDC.

Before the party boycotted the investiture of President John Mahama in January 7, it also had cause to render unqualified apologies to many media houses whose reporters were attacked by its supporters.

Interestingly, while the attacks had been going on, the party had served notice of its intents to dispute the election result in court.

“Even that suit against the Electoral Commission at the Supreme Court is embarrassing. There is no way any judge will overturn the verdict of the people, knowing such a decision would bring war, but the suit still casts unmerited doubt on the integrity of the EC,” Mr Wayo said.

For the straight talking URP founder, however, the heights of the shame that the NPP has rubbed on Ghana is the recent attack that the party launched on African Union Chairman, President Thomas Yayi Boni.

“It is totally shameful!” Mr wayo said of the attack.