Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
There is pressure on the ruling National
Democratic Congress (NDC) to outdoor its manifesto after it had cancelled a
scheduled launch of the policy document weeks after its campaign launch.
Last month, the NDC said it had
rescheduled its manifesto launch which was slated for Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo Regional
capital, on August 27, announcing that it was incorporating ‘new ideas.’
Currently, there is heated debate over
the release of manifestos by the contesting parties in the December general
election, but the heat appears to be on the ruling party to ‘lead by example.’
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said it
would delay the launching of its manifesto for this year’s elections because of
the NDC’s track record of stealing ideas from the latter party and wasting them
(ideas) in the long run.
The NDC had previously released two
manifestos, especially in 2008, at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra but was later
replaced with a new (‘updated’) one with no explanation.
Intense Debate
As the debate rages on, NDC General
Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito, has fired back, saying
that the party was not waiting for the NPP before launching its manifesto.
He said at the inauguration of the ruling
party’s campaign task force for the Volta Region that the NDC had always been
‘pacesetters’ of ideas on the political landscape and described the opposition
party as ‘losers.’
Mr. Asiedu Nketia said at the event -
which was used to commission the party’s new regional office - that “I have
heard so many people say that NDC is waiting for NPP before we release our
manifesto. We don’t learn from losers. We set the pace. I repeat, NDC does not
learn from losers. We rather set the pace for them to copy.
“Nobody
should be comparing us, our timing and programming has nothing to do with the
NPP. We go according to our own plan.”
Manifesto Ready
NDC campaign spokesperson, Joyce
Bawa-Mogtari, who doubles as Deputy Minister of Transport, said in Accra that the manifesto had been ready for “a very, very
long time” but said the arrangement for its launch had not been concluded for
“strategic reasons.”
Ms Bawa-Mogtari attributed the delay in
launching the document to the busy schedule of the party saying, “Sometimes
even finding a suitable date is a challenge.”
She insisted that the party’s calendar makes
provision that the manifesto would be launched after the campaign team has been
put together, followed by a campaign launch.
“With these two items dispensed with, the
manifesto is the next item,” she told Joy
FM, but added that with a Muslim holiday coming up on 12 September, the NDC
was left with no other choice than to schedule the launch after the holiday.
She promised that on September 13 - a day
after the holiday - the NDC would release some highlights of the manifesto and
added that she believed the delay in releasing party manifestos was not going
to deprive the electorate of issue-based campaigns and said there was still
time to debate the issues when the manifestos are finally released.
Ms. Bawa-Mogtari hinted that the
soon-to-be outdoored NDC manifesto “will be a continuation of our existing
manifesto” with an updated version.
Original Ideas
Recently at the celebration of the 24th
anniversary of the NDC, President John Dramani Mahama insisted that the party
was not afraid to launch its manifesto early, even if the opposition plagiarized
its (NDC’s) ideas.
“We
as a party will not say that we will not launch our manifesto because we are
afraid someone will copy it. Our ideas are original and we will launch our
manifesto and if anybody wants they can copy us,” he averred adding, “Our
manifesto which contains a detailed blueprint, will soon be launched and we
will take the opportunity to engage Ghanaians in a conversation around the
manifesto to foster understanding and insight into exactly what we have to
offer them.”
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