Obed?s game plan revealed

?We?ll ambush the Zongos, indigenous Accra, Dangmeland, Volta, Northern Regions and B/A?

As Rawlings and his men gloat over their convenient victory in the April 4, 2006 by-elections, re-capturing the Tamale Central seat, The Statesman investigations have uncovered the electoral game plan of Yao Obed Asamoah?s yet-to-be-launched Democratic Freedom Party: they intend to cause a stir and upset both the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress in 2008 in their bid to write history as the political spoilers of Ghana. Already, the Democratic Freedom Party has collected forms from the Electoral Commission and is expected to be registered as a national political party by the end of this month. This has already caused a split in the NDC in its membership in Parliament and across the country.

According to confidential information in our custody, all the firepower from the nozzles of the Democratic Freedom Party armoury will be directed at Accra. Also on the hit-list of Obed?s boys are constituencies in the Volta, Northern and Upper regions. The Zongo communities and Brong Ahafo as well will not be spared the fury of the McCarthy Hill strategists.

Armed with some facts, The Statesman confronted one of the people tasked to specifically draw the campaign plan for capturing the Kpeshie and Dangme seats, who could not but confirm the strategy.

By the reckoning of the DFP?s research department, those targeted constituencies not only harbour a sizeable chunk of floating voters, but also numerically constitute ?around 40 percent of the total votes in the country.? ?The NPP has a more stable voter constituency: that is why they survived the 2004 elections. The NDC also has a fairly stable constituency in the areas we intend to attack. Significantly, the voter population in these areas are manipulable in terms of propaganda; but we believe we can craft the counter propaganda needed to knock off the NDC and make the desired impact,? he revealed.

Our source, who intimated that Rawlings? image as an ?unstable revolutionary in a politically convalescing sub-region? detracts heavily from the NDC as an alternative government in 2008 in the eyes of the international community, argued that the average Ghanaian is a moderate political animal inclined more towards peace and stability than the current politics of hate being churned out, especially by the NDC.

By the game plan on their drawing board, Obed?s boys intend to prove that the Northern and Upper regions have little unflinching love for the NDC in the same way the Volta region appears to have for the NDC ?The point really is that there is an optimal political gap yet to be filled by a moderate party like ours and, with the limited time at our disposal, the wisest and most sensible thing to do is attack such politically unstable constituencies,? he intoned.

?It is the Akan-Ewe mistrust that drives the Ewes to vote NDC; and it is the Dagbon debacle and the benefits the NDC garnered from it that makes it look like the Northern regions love the NDC. The fact that, even long after Hilla Limann?s death, the PNC can afford seats in these areas proves that, given the right messages and strategies, the NDC can fall in the Northern and Upper regions and also in their own World Bank.?

This paper learnt that one key financier of the DFP ?invaded? one of these regions last year with cash and goodies in the name of the launch of a fan club. The move was to prepare the grounds for the eventual ?strike? expected in the last quarter of this year.

The financier, a top banker, had been made privy to a hit list by Mr Rawlings largely targeted at former non-conformist PNDC and NDC operatives which is intended to ?cleanse the stable for Professor Evans Atta Mills,? who is still the most popular and credible candidate for the titanic 2008 elections at every level of the NDC machine.

The banker, the paper was told, is peeved about the ?mention of his name on the list ? and has promised to do ?everything to bring the him [Rawlings] down before he ruins us,? though he (the banker) is naturally CPP.

Refusing to name names or confirm the presence in the DFP of former Rawlings men, the source warned that Teshie and Nungua were on their hit list. ?We have La, Teshie and Nungua on our hit list; fortunately for La, the NPP is reconciling its boys, so perhaps they can win back the seat with a little ?Executive? push. We can, however, cause a stir in Teshie and Nungua, because the party machine in those two constituencies are technically decapitated? the NPP in Teshie made the mistake of shunning a popular and youthful independent candidate in the 2004 elections, who attempted to pick a party card, and the Nungua branch, for now, does not appear to us as having the verve to effectively fight 2008, with the kind of candidates on the ground.? Denying reports that the DFP exist only in the documents of Kwadwo Afari-Djan?s Electoral Commission, the source told this paper that the DFP is happy about the noise being made by the party?s detractors to the effect that the DFP is not on the ground.

?We are happy they say we are not on the ground. That means that they under-rate our capacity to strike and strike fiercely? which is tactically good for us. That even shows how weak the intel machines of our opponents are becoming? but let all Ghanaians know this for a fact: we are prepared? cash, clout, crowd and credibility? the NDC thrives on vile, vicious propaganda and intimidation politics? some of us have been with them before and know all their tricks? and we are prepared for them?

?The DFP will decide the 2008 elections,? he boasted.