NDC severs ties with CDD

Accra, Aug. 4, GNA - The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Thursday announced that it was formally severing any relations with the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) since it considered the Centre to be an appendage of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The NDC in a statement accused the CDD of consistently showing open bias against the NDC.

The statement signed by Mr Bede Ziedeng, Acting General Secretary of the NDC was stating the position of the Party on the Ghana Afro Barometer 3 Round Three Report issued by the CDD last July on a survey it carried out from March 10 to 21, this year

The NDC agreed with the findings of the Report that economic hardships prevailed, that there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with economic conditions and that poverty remained persistent.

The NDC also agreed that with the Report that Ghanaians remained fully committed to democratic principles, but however disputed the findings that democracy continued to gain ground in Ghana.

The statement said the NDC disputed the conclusions drawn from those findings that democracy continued to gain ground in Ghana on the grounds that "democracy cannot be nurtured, and bear fruit in a soil of poverty and extreme economic hardship."

The NDC said the CDD Report appeared to represent the ideas and wishes of a group and did not reflect the realities of the situation in Ghana.

"They may serve the narrow interests of the ruling clique but even just a while.... Whoever acts on the basis of the survey report does so at his or her own risk."

The NDC queried the CDD on the timing of the survey between March 10 and 21 2005, three months after the 2004 General Elections when opinions about political party preferences had not changed much, adding that the Report did not mention the specific regions and districts where the survey was carried out.

The NDC said, according to the report; "70 per cent of the respondents were Christians, 16 per cent were Muslims while the remaining 4 per cent were traditionalists. Not only do these correspond to the percentage of those religious groups in Ghana, but also every objective pollster in Ghana knows that the NDC is strongest among the Muslims."

Among other things, the NDC stated that it was not surprising that the Report came out with an otherwise illogical political conclusions: that despite all the shortcomings, 53 per cent of respondents would nevertheless vote for the NPP as against 22 per cent for the NDC.