Don't Hide Behind "Rigging" for Your Defeat

- GAKE Tells Nana Addo

The new pressure group, Get Alan Kyerematen Elected (GAKE) is constantly worried about the excuses being given by Akufo-Addo's loyalists to justify his failure in winning political power for the NPP. Listening to speeches and statements by Nana Addo and his supporters, one could observe that Nana Addo is yet to come to terms with the psychology of the Ghanaian voter. Nana claims to have 'won' Election 2008 and Election 2012, yet he has never set foot in the Flagstaff House as Ghana's president. Nana has always been a "winner" per Daddy Lumba's song, but the list of his cabinet members is yet to be made public.

For those of us in GAKE, the notion that Nana 'wins', but 'denied' victory acts as an affront to the intelligence of the Ghanaian electorate. It makes it appear that the Ghanaian voter gets it wrong when it comes to the choice of president at election period. One therefore wonders why Nana Akufo-Addo, the man who many NPP delegates think is tried, tested, marketed, and popular has not caught the eyes of these voters since 2008.

With the vast experience gathered from Election 1992, where a "Stolen Verdict" was out-doored by the party, it is mind-boggling to GAKE that the Nana Addo is still complaining about "rigging" or "electoral fraud" in this 21st Century. A careful observation of NPP's and Akufo-Addo's preparation towards the last two elections gives credence to GAKE's assertion that, Nana Addo is using the word "rigging" to perpetuate himself as the NPP's flag-bearer. For, as we are all aware, all the innovations in Ghana's electoral system - new voters' register, transparent ballot boxes, photographic identification cards, polling agents, and more importantly, biometric registration and voting could be credited to the NPP. Notwithstanding the flaws in Ghana's electoral system, different presidents have emerged from both NDC's and NPP's camp. The question then is, why should Akufo-Addo's rejection at the polls on three (3) occasions (including a run-off) be seen as "rigging", when he knows that "rigging" is part of the electoral game? If the 'thief' who stole for Rawlings, Kufuor, Mills, and Mahama has refused to do such favour for Akufo-Addo on three occasions (run-off included), why should the NPP stick out for only one individual as if the party is bereft with men/women with similar ideas?

GAKE is of the view that Akufo-Addo, no doubt, has been the luckiest NPP Flagbearer in Ghana due to the impressive economic record Kufuor left behind. With NPP in government in 2008, Nana had all the state apparatus at his disposal. It is thus difficult to fathom why Mills could beat Akufo-Addo by 40,000 votes. Again, having proposed the expansion of the NPP's Electoral College from 2,000 to over 140,000 delegates; having changed the entire NPP leadership in 2010; and having trained NPP Polling Agents to make correct entries on the pink sheets, why should Akufo-Addo turn around and say the last elections were rigged?.

GAKE notes that, whilst Candidate Kufuor declared; "Hw3 woasetena mu na to aba pa", to wit, examine your living condition and vote accordingly, Nana Addo preferred "All die be die" with the view to energizing the youth to protect the ballot boxes. To detect any form of rigging in the 2012 elections, special mobile phones worth a whopping two million dollars ($2m) were said to have been supplied to NPP Polling Agents in all the 26,002 Polling Stations. But, how effective was this strategy? GAKE has observed that, while a few Polling Agents had access to the phones, and some given theirs at the 11th hour, most of the party's agents did not even know how to operate the phones let alone send text messages to the appropriate quarters. Surprisingly, some of the beneficiaries had no choice than to give the phones to their girlfriends and wives, making the purpose of the NPP phone distribution useless. In some villages, the phone numbers were out of coverage, with faulty batteries. The end effect was that, the electoral results that were supposed to be sent to Hon. O.B. Amoah and Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh at the party headquarters before Afari Gyan announced the entire results did not come as expected. Who takes the blame?

GAKE further notes that, with the 26,002 pink sheets available to the NPP's Polling Agents, the party could have fallen on them for the collation of the electoral results, if even the phone collation could not materialize. However, for nearly two years, Jake, Sir John, and Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh had failed to let Ghanaians know the overall votes of Akufo-Addo as shown on the 26,002 pink sheets. How does one therefore determine the actual number of votes 'taken' from Akufo-Addo's and 'added' unto John Mahama's as initially alleged by Sir John? Again, GAKE throws a challenge to Nana Addo to come public on why 11,000 pink sheets, but not all the 26,002 pink sheets were sent to the Supreme Court to make our case. Similarly, GAKE wants to know whether Dr. Afari Gyan and his EC also 'rigged' all the thirty-eight (38) parliamentary seats that the NPP lost to the NDC as well. If it were found to be true that Afari Gyan actually 'rigged' the parliamentary seats for 38 unknown NDC candidates, then GAKE wants to question why the immediate NPP leadership abandoned its intention of challenging the 38 parliamentary seats at the court as initially planned.

GAKE recalls a certain remarkable statement made by Akufo-Addo in 1998 in Sunyani, where he challenged J.A. Kufuor to the flag-bearership slot. He stated; "Any candidate selected by NPP's delegates had already secured 30% of the valid votes. Failure to garner the remaining 20% plus 1 vote at the national elections could be attributed to the candidate's own fault, and therefore needs to be changed". GAKE wants to find out whether Nana Addo's statement in the 1998 NPP primaries is still relevant in the 2012 primaries. GAKE also wants to find out why Nana Addo is making a desperate attempt to lead the NPP for the third consecutive time, when his popular votes keep decreasing at a faster rate with one and a half regions - Ashanti and half Eastern? Based on the above, GAKE fears that, if Akufo-Addo is given another chance to lead the NPP, he would come back after 2016 to give another excuse that, he "won", but he was either 'robbed' by the EC or did not get support from Alan Cash and Kufuor.

GAKE therefore advises Nana Addo to take a rest from active politics and retire as a Statesman. Indeed, he has served the NPP and Ghana well, but the NPP needs a president not just flagbearer. If Nana truly loves the NPP as he claims, then he should give way to others, unless he wants to re-write history of Election 1979, where Nana and his direct uncle, Mr. William Ofori-Atta (Paa Willie) kept the PFP, now NPP, in opposition for more than two decades (1979 - 2000). GAKE therefore pleads with the NPP delegates to give Alan Kyerematen, the man who symbolizes humility, competence, gentility, unity, peace, beauty, and charisma, the nod in the upcoming primaries. Think Alan! Think Power!

Signed: Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang