NDC Press Statement on By-Election

PRESS STATEMENT BY NDC ON NKORANZA NORTH BY-ELECTION

March 20, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen: I wish to thank you for responding to our invitation at short notice. Last week, following the declaration of the results of the Nkoranza North by-election I promised the nation that the NDC would make its feelings known about that election and the events leading up to it. In fulfilment of that promise I have the privilege to address you today to draw the attention of the nation to several severe lapses that occurred in Nkoranza which if not checked could seriously affect the process of constitutional democracy in this country.

This might sound like sour grapes, or a typical case of a bad loser. We however believe that we will be doing ourselves and the nation a disservice if we do not document the numerous lapses and deliberate acts of manipulation that occurred in Nkoranza, in order that corrective steps could be taken for future elections to avoid Ghanaians witnessing the spectre of disputed elections and its attendant crisis.

We do not intend to mount a legal challenge to the results of the by-election but we wish to state in no uncertain terms how appalled we are by the methods employed by the NPP to gain victory in Nkoranza. It clearly shows that NPP is a really desperate party, and will stop at nothing to destroy all the values we hold sacred in order to retain power by any means possible. We document in the following statement numerous incidents that we believed distorted the rightful judgement of the Nkoranza people on the dismal record of the NPP in its seven years in power.

The power of money (Moneycracy)

NPP’s philosophy that bribery and corruption are the means to secure victory at the polls was glaringly displayed during this by-election. Heavy vote buying of constituents by the NPP was conspicuous. In addition to the sharing of money, various other items such as half piece wax prints, Ghana@50 cloths, mattresses, Wellington Boots, praying mats, cooking oil, rice, roofing sheets, cement and sewing machines were being freely distributed to voters.

Everyday from morning to the late night, close to every polling station, an NPP vehicle took up station. The mission of the occupants was simple - sharing of various goodies to people in the surrounding communities. At a mosque at Dromankese, a stronghold of the NPP, Ghana@50 cloths were freely distributed throughout the night. In a rural and impoverished constituency where a gift of even 5000 cedis is highly appreciated, one can imagine the effect of this massive bribery unleashed on these poor rural people by the ruling party.

At Asekye, we have credible reports about Dan Botwe and Asamoah Boateng sighted moving from house to house sharing monies to convince people to go out there to vote for the NPP.

At Nadowli, the local Committee Chairman confirmed to us that he and his people had been presented with roofing sheets, canned drinks and other goods by the NPP.

Intimidation of voters This manipulation of the process was not only limited to direct bribing of voters. Key opinion leaders were also influenced to threaten settler farmers in various communities like Dromankese with eviction if they dared come out to join queues to vote. The result was that there was a significant low turnout of NDC voters, a lot of whom are settler farmers.

At Bonte, the chief of the town, late on Monday just prior to the election, after a visit from NPP’s officials, caused the gong-gong to be beaten to summon all settler farmers and warned them not to dare come out to vote.

A chief in Boana was reported to have threatened any settler farmers who defied instructions to stay away from the election with eviction from the area.

The situation was so bad that even an NDC official like the party’s Vice Chairman for Upper West who took it upon himself to go to the homes of some settler farmers in the Dromankese area to encourage them to come out to vote was arrested by the police. He was arrested together with a young female student of UDS who is a member of the party.

Disruption of NDC Campaign Programme On the penultimate day before campaigning came to an end in the constituency, the NDC’s programme for the day was severely disrupted by the presence of the President in the constituency. A rally at Busunya scheduled to start at 2pm for which police permit had been issued was held up until 4.30pm because of the presence in the community of President Kufour, ostensibly to attend some funerals in the town. Professor Mills, the NDC flag bearer, who was also at the time making his rounds of the constituency, had to be held up at several locations because of the unending convoy of the President.

Harassment of NDC Officials and supporters The NPP aided by the security apparatus created a spectre of fear and insecurity even days before the by-election by using the local FM stations to peddle lies that NDC followers were committing violent acts in the constituency. This tactic was used to justify the plan of the NPP to cause the arrest of scores of NDC supporters and officials on the day of the election.

There was the lie peddled about a pregnant woman who was allegedly brutally assaulted by NDC activists and had to be hospitalized. As I speak with you now the pregnant woman in question has not been identified and no suspect has been named or charged in connection with the incident. This was a lie gleefully repeated over and over again on Jerrison FM by Deputy Minister for Defence Hon. Agyemang Manu. On hindsight it is clear to us that these falsehoods were deliberately peddled to justify the deployment of huge numbers of security personnel before and during the election, for use in intimidating and obstructing NDC officials in their lawful duties.

In all 28 NDC functionaries were arrested both in the run up to the election and on the election-day. None of them was charged and our investigations reveal that most of these arrests were at the instance of NPP Government and party functionaries, such as ministers, DCEs etc.

Most of the security official detailed to Nkoranza, especially the police officers, carried neither identification numbers nor name tags.

Baba Jamal, a deputy General Secretary of the party was detained at a police station for one and half hours for no reason. He was told that there was an order from above to take him to the Police District Headquarters at Nkoranza.

Vehicles of virtually all NDC officials were put under surveillance and searched at will. The General Secretary’s car was searched three times and the regional Chairman’s car was searched five times.

Election Day Terror At Tanfianor, NPP officials accompanied by military people brutalised residents when attempts to bribe them were resisted by some young people. The residents including women were badly assaulted and had to run away. Many of them were too afraid to return to the area to cast their votes.

At the same Tanfianor, an NDC polling agent was arrested because he refused to allow scores of people whose names were not in the register to vote. When the branch party chairman of the NDC went to the police to enquire about the arrest, he was also detained for no reason. In areas like Dromankese, truckloads of NPP supporters from adjoining constituencies were brought in and made to vote.

At Dromankese SDA Church, the NDC polling agent was brutally assaulted by an NPP goon while the police officers on duty looked on approvingly.

At one of the polling stations at Pininhin, both the NDC and DPP agents were arrested while the voting was on.

To further frighten the NDC support base, contingents of weapon wielding military people were positioned near polling stations in areas perceived to be strongholds of the NPP.

As part of NPP’s desperate scheme to affect the psyche of the NDC support base in the area, the ballot box in Tailor Krom was opened by 1pm under the pretence that the voting was disrupted by bees. The officials counted the results and gave it to the local media which started broadcasting it all over the radio stations in what can be seen as a carefully orchestrated attempt to tell the NDC supporters who had not yet voted not to bother because it was already a done deal for the NPP.

We are surprised that the local observers such as CDD who were in Nkoranza have given the election a clean bill of health without even a passing reference to the bizarre incident mentioned above that occurred at Tailor Krom.

Even the NPP parliamentary candidate was an integral part of the entire electoral manipulation. Even though his name was not on the electoral register, Hon. J.B. Aidoo, the former Western regional minister was instrumental in getting the electoral officials to allow him to cast his vote at Dromankese against the protestations of the NDC agent.

Long after voting had started, loudspeakers could still be heard broadcasting instructions for residents to go out and cast their votes for the NPP. This was particularly pronounced at the mosque at Dromankese where the Ghana@50 cloths were shared throughout the night.

The EC which is the body entrusted by the constitution to organize superintend fair election in Ghana has enjoyed our general respect and confidence over the years. We were however taken aback at a sight of a female Commissioner of the EC, Nana Amba Enyimba in her 4x4 wheel vehicle jubilating and waving back happily to the rejoicing NPP supporters when the result of the polls was declared at Dromankese. Two of our national executive officers, Messrs Fifi Kwetey and Elvis Afriyie Ankrah directly sighted this high ranking EC official openly waving back ecstatically to the jubilant NPP crowd at Dromankese, presumably because the intended mission had been well achieved.

The leadership of the NDC wants to use this opportunity to thank all its supporters and sympathisers for helping the party to increase its tally in the Nkoranza North by-election despite all the manipulation deployed by the NPP.

We urge our numerous supporters not to be daunted by these manoeuvres but to resolve to work even harder to help take power from the desperate claws of the NPP in 2008 in order to restore integrity of the electoral system of Ghana and rid the nation of the dangerous manipulative philosophy that the NPP is institutionalizing in our body politic.

Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah General Secretary