While people like me want to see a party other than NDC or NPP to form the next Government after 2012, it should be obvious to any realistic observer that this dream is nothing more than a dream, as things stand now. NDC and NPP are the only parties that have the chance of winning the 2012 elections, even though the smaller parties can do better than they did in the last general elections. In particular, I find it hard to believe how the flagbearer of any party with less than two percent national support-base can think that he or she can win a presidential election in this country and be sworn in as President of Ghana. Holding such a thought is not only close to madness; it is also publicly obstructive, and nationally money-wasting, from the Electoral Commissioner’s point of view. Unless a big miracle occurs between now and the last quarter of the year 2012 to change the arithmetic combinations of votes and parties’ “fortunes”, it is obvious that it will be either the NDC’s flagbearer, who is yet to be chosen, or Nana Akuffo-Addo of the NPP, who has already been chosen by his party, who will win the 2012 presidential elections. If I were a member of any of the smaller parties, I would go to all the presidential aspirants in that particular small party and tell them in their faces to stop wasting their resources, their efforts, and their time..... as well as those of the Electoral Commissioner.

Since I am not a member of any of these small parties, even though I have always written to encourage them to endeavour to improve their support bases, I can only advise such presidential aspirants from this forum that they must settle for lower political ambitions, for the time being, by focussing on winning parliamentary seats in the 2012 elections for themselves and their parties, rather than aiming at the presidency, which none of them has any chance of winning now. *The advice in this article is particularly aimed at the “big shots” in CPP and PNC..... two [currently small] parties with the best electoral prospects for growth, in my opinion. I believe that all those political giants in the CPP and PNC who are aspiring to become the President of Ghana are better placed NOW to win parliamentary seats in either their home constituencies, or in constituencies within the places where they are most known and most popular. If all such giants in the CPP and PNC contested the parliamentary elections in 2012 and won...... which I hope they could, it would strengthen the presence of the two main Nkrumahist parties in Parliament and help them to build the future from such positions of strength, through their individual and collective participations on parliamentary platforms. I therefore use this article to appeal to all such presidential aspirants in both CPP and PNC to drop their ambitions one step down, and dream the dream they can turn into reality in 2012.

I believe that if these two parties concentrate their efforts on winning more parliamentary seats, they can do well in the next Parliament, as Nkrumahists. I believe that the CPP can win, at least, a total of ten seats in Western and Central Regions, in particular, if this Nkrumahist party concentrates its efforts in 2012 on the parliamentary elections only. I also believe that the PNC can also win, at least, a total of the same ten seats in the three Northern Regions where this party has its strong support base. Were these two parties to concentrate their efforts on the parliamentary elections only; and were they to win a total of at least twenty seats between the two of them, the two together would be a political force to reckon with in Parliament, and that would help them to attract even bigger support in future elections. From such positions of strength, the two parties would also realise the “real” need to unite to fight together for a bigger victory in 2016. As such, it would be more possible for their long stalled unification talks to have a chance of succeeding to enable the combined party from such unification to be in a stronger position to challenge whichever party will form the next Government after 2012. That would be the time for those who are currently in the CPP and PNC and who have presidential ambitions to dream their “big dream” and go forward, with their then highly improved chance of winning.

As things stand now, even if the two main Nkrumahist parties succeed in merging before the next general and presidential elections, there is still no chance for the presidential candidate of the new party from such CPP/PNC merger to be able to overtake the flagbearers for the current two dominant parties UNLESS “something” happens to affect the electoral chances of NDC. I say NDC, instead of both NDC and NPP, because the people who otherwise would vote for CPP or PNC now mainly vote for the NDC, rather than the NPP. Therefore, it is negative developments in NDC, rather than NPP, that can cause many party supporters to switch their support in favour of either the CPP or the PNC..... quite apart from the few opportunistic voters who vote purely on the basis of where they are likely to benefit most, rather than on principles, who can switch their allegiance differently from this natural trend. *And the only kind of negative development in NDC that can favour both the CPP and PNC is a “real major split” within that party, arising from the ongoing pro-Mills versus pro-Rawlings “rumblings”, or from any future similarly serious “clashes”. If such a “real major split” were to happen and were to lead to the formation of a splinter group from the main NDC root, the resultant two parties would both be weak and that might cause a significant number of NDC sympathisers to defect to one, or both of the two main Nkrumahist parties, the CPP and the PNC.

For the meantime though, members of both the CPP and PNC who have presidential ambitions should wash their faces with soda water to help them to remove any remnants of sleepiness from any slumbers they may be having, and begin to see clearer. THEY DON’T STAND ANY CHANCE OF WINNING A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN 2012, GIVEN THAT MIRACLES DO NOT WORK IN ELECTIONS. It is therefore better, for themselves and their parties, for these presidential aspirants to cut down their political ambitions and go for parliamentary seats, which they can easily win. After winning their parliamentary seats, they can then nurture their bigger dream from there. We call this “the step-by-step approach [to the ‘end’ one desires]”. *They should know that what cannot be done in one way is best tried in another way.

Source: Otchere Darko; [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today.]