NDC is confused - NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has questioned the readiness of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to come back to power, as it says the latter appears confused in its operations.

According to the NPP, their main contender, NDC, seems not to be serious, if not confused, as the NDC is asking Ghanaians to tell them what to put in its manifesto ahead of the 2020 elections.

This, the NPP said, was a display of the lack of ideas by the largest opposition party, NDC, which portrays itself as a better alternative to the ruling party.

A statement issued last Sunday, signed by a deputy General Secretary of the party in charge of operations, Peter Boamah Otukonor, asked Ghanaians to submit policy memoranda for the party’s 2020 manifesto.

The statement said, “the objective to develop a grassroots manifesto is driven by the need to give meaning to our (NDC) social democratic principles of inclusivity and mass participation in the pursuit of growth and development of our country.”

However, addressing a press conference yesterday, the National Communications Director of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoah, said the NDC has all the time in opposition to bring out ideas, instead of asking the 30 million Ghanaians to submit proposals.

“The NDC candidate has just launched a Manifesto Committee, whose first order of business is to ask us (citizens) to think for them. Perhaps, we have to help them because they are very confused.



“My suggestion to their Manifesto Committee is to first conduct a baseline of how they managed to run a healthy first-time oil-producing economy into the IMF, including a truth edit of the Green Book,” he added.

Concluding, the Director of Communications, who is the Member of Parliament for Adenta Constituency, highlighted the upcoming referendum slated for December 17 2019, to be held simultaneously with the usual District Assembly elections, which will provide for the election of Unit Committee and Assembly Members.

“The Referendum is necessary because the President is seeking your initiative to let you take charge at local level through organised political parties.

“Voting for a leader and or public official gives a voter an emotional bond to that leader, enabling the voter to participate more closely in the activities of the leader voted for. Everybody who voted in the last election feels close to the President and demands action from the President all the time.

“So to improve the relationship between the voter and the Assembly, the President has decided that the people should vote to elect their local leaders themselves,” he remarked.

Article 243 (1) of the 1992 Constitution gives the President power to appoint local Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives that he wants to give to the people.

He explained that if only Article 243 (1) is changed, the process will still be continuing with an open secret – pretending that political parties are not involved with district assembly elections.

“To remove the secrecy about party participation and make the Assembly more transparent and responsive, the President is asking us to go further and allow political parties to get involved openly and directly.

“To do that, we must amend Article 55(3). Article 55(3) does not allow political parties to openly participate in district-level elections. To change Article 55(3), however, we need a referendum. 40% of registered voters must turn out, and 75% of those people must vote ‘yes’.

“If we turn out and vote ‘yes’ on 17th December 2019, then the next District Assembly election in 2021 will include political parties,” he added.