EDITORIAL: NDC - What's the Fuss About?

The arguments just don't add up!

The NDC's position on the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill is at best confusing and at worst dishonest and mischievous. They are not against the principle of the amendment, they say, but are fearful that the amendment would be used to rig Election 2008.


Flowing from this standpoint, they've gone on to weave all sorts of yarns about cost, about the "majority" of people not supporting it, about a lack of "consensus", etc. These are all issues that can be debated and resolved on the floor of parliament. Refusal to use this forum only means that the NDC is not interested in civilized parliamentary discourse.


In an interview broadcast yesterday on one of the nation's television networks, the Minority Leader, Alban Bagbin gave the game away when he declared that the government's decision to see the Bill through was "at variance with the thinking of the [minority] parties." Significantly, he did not say it was at variance with the thinking of the constitution. But to us, that is the issue: The Constitution.


If no constitutional niceties have been trampled upon, either in letter or in spirit, then what's the fuss about?

We can guess what it is all about: Hankering for a coup d'etat.



By creating a state of uncertainty, the NDC believes it can engineer a regime change before 2008. That's hardly surprising, for as the product of a coup, the NDC is finding it extremely difficult to operate in an atmosphere where it is not wielding executive power or total power.



In the coming days and weeks, Ghanaians would have to be extremely vigilant, because, the NDC has lighted the fuse which is slowly burning towards the gun powder...