Mills & Spio Blast NPP

The flagbearer of the NDC, Prof. Atta Mills and Dr. Ekwow Spio Garbrah, a leading member of the party have descended heavily on the Kufuor led government accusing them of amassing wealth at the expense of Ghanaians and also manipulating the electoral system. Spio Garbrah who drew the first blood in an interview he granted Metro TV?s ?Good evening Ghana? accused president Kufuor and his ministers of putting up mansions across the country. He said president Kufuor himself showed bad example when his family acquired a hotel few years after coming to office.

The former Communication minister also accused the president of packing his government with his family members, which to him is a bad precedence that he has set. He said from president Nkrumah down to former president Rawlings they could have all bought hotels or acquired mansions but they did not do that. Spio would not be pushed by his interviewer to name family members in president Kufuor?s government. They are all over and Ghanaians will attest to this, he said.

PROF. JOHN Evans Atta Mills also called press conference yesterday where he reiterated that NDC will reject the December general elections if the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) attempts to steal the verdict as it did it in 2004 elections.

?I want to repeat with all the force at my command, the warning note that I sounded last year that should there be another attempt by the ruling party or other party at the December elections to steal verdict of the people, the NDC and all fair minded Ghanaians will categorically reject out of hand the fraudulent results so proclaimed and will adopt all legitimate means to seek redress to any such political misconduct.?

According to Prof. Mills, the NDC would like to assure every Ghanaian that it will not allow the NPP in the coming elections to repeat what he described as ?a disgraceful conduct as it did in 2004?, pointing out that the electorate alone shall be the judge of the eight-year stewardship of the NPP.

Speaking at the press conference at the party?s headquarters on Wednesday, in apparent reaction to the recent general and presidential elections in Kenya, the NDC leader said the NDC wantd a level playing field at the polls and that they would not tolerate any individual being a minister or whoever to declare the elections except the recognized body, Electoral Commission.

?The NDC has not only put total confidence in democratic governance, including the holding of free, fair and transparent and credible elections, but has also demonstrated the virtues of a peaceful transition of administration as everyone witnessed in January, 2001.? Prof. Mills was flanked by Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah, Mr. Eddie Annan, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the national chairman of the NDC, the party?s chief Scribe, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, Mad. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, national women?s organizer, Hon. Edward Doe Adjahoe, deputy Minority leader, Hon. Enoch Teye Mensah, MP for Ningo Prampram, Mr. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, deputy general secretary in charge of operations with Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, the MP for Tamale South serving as the master of ceremony and a host of party gurus. He expressed concern at the developments in Africa in terms of elections.

He urged all Ghanaians and international community to draw useful lessons from the ongoing Kenya conflict situation and the unacceptable conduct of elections held recently in other African countries with a view of ensuring that they are not replicated in our country at the next general elections.

He stressed that the call by the Kenya opposition leader for a re-run was justified due to the fact that the ballot papers have been destroyed and therefore cannot be a recount.

?The NDC supports that demand as the most likely route to the determination of the unequivocal wish of Kenyas in presidential elections,? backing his point with the assertion that, ?In Ghana, notwithstanding an injunction preserving the authenticity of the ballot papers, the Electoral Commission and its agents have tampered with and destroyed some of the ballot papers thus affecting the outcome of any subsequent recount that may occur.?

To Prof. Mills, such conduct has completely frustrated the process and reduced the court case to what appears to be a mere exercise in futility, adding that they have left the matter for the good people of Ghana to draw their own conclusions about such a serious irregularity allegedly perpetrated with impunity by the NPP.

He maintained that the regrettable outcome of the Kenya election was of a great significance and direct relevance to all Ghanaians not only because ?we have important elections coming on in December, 2008 but also especially because the NPP government created conditions that could have brought the country close to violent confrontation at the end of the elections held in 2004.?

According to him the similarities in the unfortunate situations both in Ghana and Kenya are too glaring to b e ignored, especially as there was a high probability of their repetition in the forthcoming general elections.

He added that it was clear that the illegal declaration of the result of the Presidential elections by a Minister of a ruling NPP party and not by the EC, created the grave possibility of plunging the country into chaos and violence.

Prof. Mills also expressed concern about the electoral process in Togo, Nigeria and that of Kenya in order to save what he believed to be unpopular and corrupt parties from being thrown out of power.

He maintained that indeed, the notion was growing that one can gets away with rigging in spite of the true wishes of the people, if you display enough political bravado and can rely on the security services to shore up fraudulent acts.

On the home ground, the NDC flag bearer expressed shock that the President Kufour could not attend Bawku to see to the resolutions of the conflict but chose to ignore it and moved to Kenya. ?We are not saying that he should not attend to other problems but when your house is on fire, you must solve it first because it was through Ghana that you became the AU chairman,? he said.

Prof. Mills introduced the UK-Ireland branch chairman of the NDC, Mr. Alex Segbefia as the NDC campaign coordinator for 2008, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, campaign spokesperson, Mr. Eric Ametor-Quaryme, the deputy spokesperson, with Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah, Eddie Annan and Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu as key members of the campaign team.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Mr. William Ampem-Darko, has stated that the GBC would not broadcast any inflammatory material or indecent language from any political party in the country.

He has, therefore, advised political parties to be civil with the language they used to enable the GBC give fair and equitable coverage to all of them.

The Director General said this on Wednesday, this week, when the leadership of the Convention People?s Party (CPP) led by its national chairman-elect, Mr. Ladi Nylander visited the offices of the GBC.

According to Mr. Ampem-Darko, who was flanked by directors of various departments within the GBC, any political party whose materials had violent undertone would never be broadcast by the corporation.

He also announced that his outfit would soon form internal electoral complaints committee to resolve any dispute the political parties would have with the GBC without going to the National Media Commission.

Ampem Darko urged all the political parties to differentiate between political news and commercials.

Mr. Apem-Darko further announced that the Corporation had planned to meet representatives of all political parties in early February to discuss how to be in tune with guidelines for political broadcast.

Assuring a level playing field to all political parties, he said since 2008 is an election year; GBC would not broadcast anything to the advantage or disadvantage of any political party. GBC would not announce any provisional results during the election excepting that of Electoral Commission (EC).