Posted on:
www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Wednesday, December
07, 2016
All is set for the crucial general election today as indicators
point to a straight fight between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC)
and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to the Electoral Commission (EC), over 15.8 million voters
are eligible to go in the 28,992 polling stations across the country to select the
5th President of the 4th Republic (in the case of an
Akufo-Addo victory) as well as some 275 parliamentarians to constitute the 7th
Parliament of the 4th Republic.
Many are tipping NPP flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to
secure a historic victory over incumbent President John Dramani Mahama of the
ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who is seeking a second term in
office.
Polls after polls projected Nana Akufo-Addo as the likely winner but
the NPP said it was just a moral booster and that they were not going to be
complacent.
It is going to be the third attempt of the NPP’s 72 year-old
respected lawyer and former diplomat who lost two previous elections (2008
& 2012) under controversial circumstances while President Mahama, 58 who is
optimistic his track record will bring him the votes, even though there is
overwhelming call for change.
According to the NPP, they are going into the election with their flagship
campaign messages of job creation hinged upon industrialization, economic
stability and the modernization of agriculture while President Mahama and his
NDC are relying on what they say is their unprecedented infrastructural development
to keep them in office for another term.
Mahama’s Past
When President Mahama was selected in 2008 to partner the then
candidate, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills for that election which the NDC won, he
said categorically at the time that NPP did not have a message because they
were campaigning on the wings of infrastructural development which he said was
the responsibility of every government to provide.
In fact, he said that comparing records will be a recipe for mediocrity.
One of the NDC’s campaign messages has been that since the 4th
Republic came into being on January 7, 1993, every President has been given two
terms by Ghanaians and expected President Mahama to enjoy similar privilege at
the polls.
However, the NPP has parried that assertion and labeled the
President as an incompetent and corrupt leader who did not deserve another term
in office and President Mahama’s ‘Toaso’ (continue) slogan is being met with
the NPP’s ‘Twaso’ (end it).
The NPP appeared to have initiated an issue-based campaign
spearheaded by the party’s running mate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia against the
backdrop of the ethnocentric campaigns embarked upon by the President.
The Promises
The NPP have rattled the NDC with their flagship development plans such
as the 1 District 1 Dam, the restructuring of the Savannah Accelerated
Development Authority (SADA) to bridge the North/South development gap, the
establishment of the middle-belt and coastal development authorities, the Zongo
Development Fund as well as the $1 million each annually for all the 275
constituencies to develop basic infrastructure.
NDC on the other hand says President Mahama has built a strong foundation
for an economic take-off starting from 2017 and has promised to create over
400,000 jobs in the President’s second term through Youth Enterprise Agency
(YEA) formerly GYEEDA which squandered millions of cedis with culprits walking
chest out.
Stealing
Campaign Ideas
The NPP launched its manifesto at the Trade Fair Centre, La, Accra
on October 9 with the title “Change, Agenda for jobs: Creating Opportunities
for All,” while NDC had theirs in Sunyani earlier on September 17 on the
theme" "‘Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana."
The NDC appear to have taken the manifesto slogan the NPP used for the
keenly contested 2012 general elections and also doctored the opposition
party’s Hope (H) video advertisement for its (NDC) 2016 campaign.
Changing vrs
Transforming
For instance, the NDC’s “Changing Lives! Transforming Ghana!” was
couched by the NPP in 2012 and the opposition party became bewildered at the
brazen attempt by the Mahama-led NDC government to lay claim to its (NPP's)
slogan.
The NPP slogan for the 2012 election was “Transforming Lives,
Transforming Ghana,” and all the NDC appeared to have done was to substitute
the word ‘Transforming’ to ‘Changing.’
In 2012, the NDC’s manifesto was titled, “Advancing the better Ghana
agenda,” but abandoned it for the NPP’s ‘Transforming lives!’ which it has
gleefully turned into ‘Changing lives!.’
Ideas Stealing
The NDC, in another brazen instance of ‘stealing,’ took the ‘H’
video advertisement of the young professionals who wanted Nana Akufo-Addo as
President and substituted the messages on it with its own messages.
They did it to the then Convention People’s Party (CPP) presidential
candidate, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, in the run-up to the 2008 general elections
when it (NDC) ‘hijacked’ his ‘Yere sesa mu’ (We are effecting changes) slogan
for its candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
Furthermore, when the NPP said it would introduce the Northern
Development Authority (NDA) to help bridge the development and poverty gap
between the people of the three northern regions and their counterparts in the
south, the NDC quickly brought on board the Savannah Accelerated Development
Authority (SADA).
Free SHS
Also, the NPP said in 2012 that when elected into office it was
going to implement a Free Senior High School policy for all second cycle
students to access free education, but the NDC said it was impossible, only to
turn around in early 2014 to say it was going to implement the same policy it
ridiculed.
Economic
Indicators
The NPP has continuously insisted that President Mahama is supervising
an upside-down economy and said that almost every economic indicator that
directly affect the livelihood of all Ghanaians was experiencing a downward
trend.
Comparing data from 2012 to 2016 they said inflation which was 9% (2012)
is now hovering at 15.8 %, the GH¢1.6 is now about $4 while Gross Government
Debt which was GH¢10.8 billion in 2008 and shot up to GH¢39.8 billion in 2012
has ballooned to GH¢117 billion under President Mahama.
The NPP further contends that GDP growth rate which was 9.2 % in
2012 has shrunk to 3,9% in 2016 while interest rate which was 12% (2012) is now
the highest in the whole world at 26% and per capita income which was $1,490 is
currently reduced to $1,340.
Tribal Politics
The President himself has been accused by the NPP of campaigning on
the platform of ethnocentrism.
The party accused the President of allegedly bribing NPP Northern
Regional Chairman Daniel Bugri Naabu to label Nana Akufo-Addo as a bigot.
The NDC as a party has come out to rubbish their opponent’s claims
but the President himself has never commented publicly whether the allegation
was true or otherwise.
Some political analysts who are predicting victory for Nana
Akufo-Addo have said that the NDC campaign machine went on a desperate attempt
to make the NPP and its candidate look like they did not like some ethnic
groups in the country but that appeared to have backfired because the supposed
victims are the ones even clamouring for the change.
Bawumia
Firepower
It allowed Dr. Bawumia, the respected economist to delve into
President Mahama’s record especially in economic management and shredded it
without challenge.
In fact, in those series of lectures, he drilled holes into the entire
monetary and fiscal universe of Mr. Mahama's administration.
“His deliveries had an intellectual ring about them wrapped in
mockery, taunts, derision and unforgettable sound-bites deployed to take
captive our cyber media age. The NDC could not respond. It seemed no one in the
entire team could step up,” an analyst said, adding “in the event Bawumia
highlighted so forcefully and colorfully the incompetent charge against Mahama
it stuck like glue on paper. The NPP came to dominate the campaign discourse
thereafter. The NDC become reactionary forced to respond to the terms set by
Bawumia and the NPP campaign machine.”
The NPP has been able to position Nana Akufo-Addo as an incorruptible
leader, a view shared even by the NDC’s own founder former President J.J.
Rawlings who has refused to endorse President Mahama for a second term.
Peace &
Security
Many analysts say that any violence that breaks out will depend on
how the security agencies have handled issues up till Election Day. So far,
they especially the police have displayed selective law enforcement to the
chagrin of the opposition parties.
Doubts over the EC’s neutrality is another security challenge for the
country. The NPP has variously accused the Charlotte Osei-led commission of
doing the bidding of President Mahama and his party.
Other Candidates
Apart from President Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo, other candidates
include Ivor Kobina Greenstreet of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), former
first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP),
Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom of the People’ Progressive Party (PPP), Dr. Edward Nasigre
Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC) as well as Jacob Osei-Yeboah
who is going Independent.
Interestingly, Ghana goes into this year’s election with Public
Elections Regulations, 2016 (C. I. 94) which law experts believe is an
improvement over the previous instruments. The country also has a new referee
after the longstanding commissioner Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan retired.
Many believe that the strict enforcement of the regulations will secure
the peace everybody is looking for.
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