NOW TELL ME WHICH PARTY IS MORE DEMOCRATIC AND BROAD BASED?

The Party formed by a former coup maker who does not always speak so fondly about democracy, and which is described by its opponents as party of thugs lost power through general elections about eight years ago. Its leader, a former military strongman turned civilian president, accepted the verdict of the people , their presidential candidate who happened to be the sitting vice president then, promptly conceded defeat and ensured a peaceful handover of power from one properly elected civilian government to another. This magnanimous act earned Ghana high marks in the comity of civilized democracies and the phrase the beacon of Africa came to assume a new dimension for Ghana.

This is the story of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Rawlings and Attah Mills. Then there is this other party which calls itself the party of democrats, the party of rule of law, the party of good governance, the party of so-called intellectuals, the party of self made millionnaires. This party i s the beneficiary of the peaceful transfer of power some eight years ago. This party failed the people of Ghana who entrusted them with the mandate to govern instead they went on a looting spree of the national coffers in an arrogant display of self aggrandizement.
They talked of property owning democracy in a country where about 60% of the youth who form a critical voting bloc do not even have a job let alone own a property. They failed to realise that creating jobs for these youngmen and women should have been their top priority because if one doesn't have a job he/she cannot own a property. Their message failed to click with the people and as a result the enlightened Ghanaian electorate showed them the exit door in the December 7th elections and emphatically delivered the coup de grace on December 28th. But what did we see? The so called democrats and the party of rule of law is refusing to accept defeat when it is abundantly clear that the people have repudiated them.
Th is is the story of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led by Kuffour and Akuffo-Addo. They cooked up astronomical figures which are not endorsed by polling agents at various polling stations, and electoral officers from the various constituencies to pad the numbers in Kumasi. They conjured up percentages which will make Saddam Hussein turn in his grave. The 99.99% turn out in Kumasi was something Saddam Hussein himself couldn't achieve in Iraq under his rule. So are the NPP and Saddam Hussein in the same league? Now there is intelligent cheating and unintelligent, stupid cheating. What the NPP did in Kumasi falls into the unintelligent very stupid category. It is a shameful act to commit in a democracy. When the numbers have already been collated and endorsed by all concerned and made public by the media, then new numbers pop up all of a sudden delivered by an NPP MP and made known only to the people in the EC strong room. What kind of fraudulent election is this?
The NDC undoub tedly complained about this and other irregularities in Ashanti region and according to Dr. Afari Djan provided evidence to back their claim. The NPP also complained about some irregularities in Volta region but failed to provide evidence to support their claim. Eh? Which party is made up of intellectuals??? If the EC cannot get the two parties to agree on the results from Ashanti region and Volta region, them may I suggest that we throw out the results from these two regions and go ahead to declare the winner of the elections. Kuffour's time is running out on January 6th, already there is no time for transition, the EC and NPP cannot hold Ghana to ransom. The President elect Prof. Attah Mills needs to put together a government to help put Ghana back to work. If you look at the difference separating Attah Mills and Akuffo-Addo, even with all the padded figures from Kumasi, the results of Tain constituency cannot overturn that. The difference may be small but if you look at t he regional voting pattern and the results it was a landslide for Attah Mills NDC and a massive rejection of Akuffo-Addo and NPP. Professor John Attah-Mills and the NDC won eight out of ten regions, that's a blow out !!
What the NPP needs to do now is to accept defeat in good faith, go back to the drawing board, assess what went wrong (even though it is obvious), re-strategize and fine tune their message. May be in four years, or eight years, the good people of Ghana will listen to them and give them another chance. That is what makes a true democrat.
Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo-Japan. The author is a public policy expert, a senior political and social analyst based in Tokyo, Japan. He welcomes your comments. ___________________________________________________________