*The Ugly Face of Democracy*

During and after the Atiwa by-election about a week ago, the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) complained of harassment and intimidations of their supporters by hired macho men of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Senior members of the NPP, including its National Chairman, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka Sir John, were loudly heard on radio stations, including Joy FM, Citi FM, Peace FM, and Oman, claiming that NPP members were being harassed and even killed by NDC thugs.

Contrary to events described by NPP, it was rather their supporters who made the polling stations appear to look like battlefield as captured by cameramen stationed in the Atiwa Constituency.

Details emerging have revealed the claims were false -nobody was found dead as the party claimed, nobody was driven way from polling station. The situation was rather the opposite, indeed the Eastern Regional Police Commander, DCOP Ransford Moses Ninson described the process as peaceful except some few injuries which were recorded.

The exclusive picture (above) shows a group of NPP irate youth who had been called into action by their leaders to disrupt the electoral process and thereby prevent NDC and other political parties’ members from casting their vote. The NPP hierarchy even exploited children less than 10 years for their selfish interest which political analysts describe as impolitic.

The picture tells the whole story, as the youth of Abomosu were called into action; the NPP’s version of a “Jihad”. Jihad is often mistakenly described as “holy war” by Islam extremists. People including innocent children are recruited and armed with guns and bombs to kill under the guise of a struggle to preserve the Islamic faith and freedom of worship.

In their numbers, they blockaded the main road from Accra into the township, and there are some of the people in the thick crowd who the NPP claimed were mowed down by the car being used by , the National Women Organizer of the National Democratic Congress, Madam Anita De-Souza.

The crash story was debunked by the NDC leaders, and in her own words, Madam De-Souza denied ever running her vehicle over some people at Atiwa during last Tuesday’s by-election. She said she was rather in danger of being lynched by an irate NPP youth who had set up an illegal road block in the constituency, contrary to claims by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey and Frances Awurabena Essiam.

Madam Desouza said on Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosii Sen’ programme that when she got to the road block, the youth initially opened up the roadblock ostensibly to allow her to go through. But as she was proceeding through the roadblock she was asked to roll down her windows. She said she complied with the demand. However, one of the road blockers screamed an order for the road to be blocked again because the occupants were among a group being sought.

She said realizing that her life could be in danger, she sped off while the youth, including the small children at the road block, were attempting to block the road again. She reported the matter to the Anyinam Police who instructed her to report the case to another post.

Election observers, including Coalition of Election Observers (CODEO), were not happy with the situation, particularly the use of children as human shield, The Coalition blamed aspects of the violence in the constituency to police inaction, but the Director of Police Public Affairs, DSP Kwesi Ofori, who had widely spoken on the situation, said the intention of the police was to demonstrate the “democratic policing philosophy” of ensuring that the service did not use a high-handed approach to control violence in the constituency.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Manhyia has confessed to urging his supporters to arm themselves against persons alleged to have been hatching a plot to disrupt the 2008 elections in Manhyia.

Matthew Opoku-Prempeh said he asked his “people” to wield sticks and other objects to chase out anyone who would have attempted to rig the elections in the constituency. The MP dismisses suggestions that his call amounted to inciting the electorate in the NPP stronghold to cause violence.

“During the second round [of the 2008 elections] I got credible information that people were going to steal ballot boxes in my peripheral areas. Do you know what I did? I made a car go round and say nobody who goes to vote should go back home. They should stand there with cudgels and sticks; if anybody comes there and attempts to take a ballot box, they should deal with the person,” Mr. Opoku-Prempeh told Kwaku Sakyi Addo, host of Joy FM’s news analysis programme Newsfile, last Saturday.

“…precisely because what have we found in this country? Policemen who are going to police ballot boxes are not armed.”

Mr. Opoku-Prempeh’s confession follows reports that most of the 1200 policemen deployed to provide security at the recent by-election at Atiwa in the Eastern Region were not armed. Reports were rife that busloads of heavily-built men combed through the constituency and brutalized some electorate with impunity while the police looked on.