Presidential hopeful of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has registered his displeasure at the behaviour of some followers of the ruling NDC government to disturb his campaign, ahead of the December 7 polls.
Dr. Nduom alleged that there have been numerous attempts conspired to use some people including state security to deny him venues allocated for his rallies.
Speaking over the weekend where he shared his party’s vision with Ghanaians through a live broadcast on all GN Media platforms including four Television and 22 radio stations across the country, Dr. Nduom said the latest of such incidents happened on Saturday, November 26, 2016 in the Tarkwa Nsuem constituency in the Western Region where a venue he had paid for his regional rally was nearly denied him.
The business mogul cum politician said he received a phone call at the eleventh hour from the police advising he changed his venue because President John Dramani Mahama had chosen the venue for a National Democratic Congress’ regional rally.
The PPP presidential nominee claimed that some NDC faithful(s) also flocked the venue to gibe and drive out PPP supporters who were gathering for the rally.
Dr. Nduom asked: “Is this a good thing? Who does the NDC want to worry? Will this attitude help when the NDC is given another term,” he retorted in undiluted Fanti to PPP supporters in Tarkwa who shouted: “Big NO!”
Dr. Nduom, who was constrained to change the time of his rally else risked losing the venue, wondered why he would be discriminated against.
“President Mahama is in the election and he is candidate Mahama, just as I am candidate Papa Kwesi Nduom, as there is candidate Edward Mahama. So how do we achieve free and fair elections when state players collude with political parties to the disadvantage of some others? Is President Mahama a superior human being to me? Or is the NDC more Ghanaian than us?” he asked.
He said the NDC’s attitude of ‘cheating’ and ‘manhandling’ of fellow Ghanaians clearly showed why the party’s management of the country was nothing to write home about.
According to him, it was for the sake of peace that was why the party decided to hold its rally in the morning so that Mahama would do his in the afternoon.
“The NDC has wicked mind and it does wicked things. This is annoying,” he said.
He said he was worried about what will happen to Ghana during and after the 2016 elections.
“I am not afraid about how the PPP will fare in the 2016 elections. I have won and lost elections. So I have experienced what you feel when you lose and when you win. I have experienced what burdens we carry when we contest elections at the local and national levels,” he stated.
Dr. Nduom noted that Ghanaians are senselessly deluding that we are in a democracy, that there is freedom of choice and that elections are “free and fair.”
The unfairness in Ghana’s elections according to him started way before the actual elections and continues to Election Day.
“I am afraid for Ghana. Will we remain a one country, largely united under one administration after the 2016 elections? Will the Ghanaian economy have the ability to sustain the use of the government treasury to finance a partisan campaign? Will we still have confidence in using the ballot box to elect our leaders? I am a believer in democracy. But I am questioning what type of democracy we have that allows some political parties to act with impunity, cheat and divide the same people they want to rule,” he lamented.