No Incumbency Abuse Under Mills/Mahama

Contrary to reports of incumbency abuse by Anti-Corruption Coalition groups against the John Mahama led National Democratic Congress government; The Al-Hajj’s findings have proved otherwise.

Unlike 2008, where the New Patriotic Party flagrantly used state vehicles, state security apparatuses, state officials, state venues and paraphernalia, the state media, and state helicopters to distribute campaign materials of its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, same cannot be said under the ruling National Democratic Congress

Rather, the president and NDC presidential candidate, President John Dramani Mahama has embarked on a house-to-house campaign, with the biggest opposition party NPP and the other parties matching the ruling part squarely in terms of campaign resources.

This development, though laudable for Ghana’s fledgling democracy because it creates a level playing field for all the political parties contesting the 2012 elections, it has set people wondering whether the NDC is the ruling party or the party in opposition.

When The Al-Hajj sampled the views of eligible voters on the street of Accra, Kumasi and Tamale, a lot of them admitted not seeing the ruling government engaged in the usual last-minute flurry of sod-cutting for projects and its commissioning activities by incumbent presidents.

“Unlike in 2004 under President John Kufuor and during the 2008 polls where Nana Akufo-Addo were awash in resources and was out-spending his seven other presidential opponents, we don’t see that under the NDC, but I think all of them are on the same wave-length in terms of campaign” a retired banker in Accra noted

According to him in 2008, Nana Akufo-Addo whose party was then in government had his photographs plastered on huge billboards all across the country, adding one could find billboards at every corner of the country displaying adverts of the NPP

This is contrary to reports by anti-corruption bodies led by the Ghana Integrity Initiative who in less than 48 hours to Friday’s crucial election has mischievously come up with a report sighting President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress for abuse of incumbency in the latest report. It is however, interesting that whiles the opposition parties have not raised a whisker of any form abuse of incumbency by the NDC; the GII surprisingly has rather accused both the NDC and the opposition NPP for abuse of incumbency. For instance, the anti-corruption coalition report cited the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo of vote buying during one of his campaign tours to the Upper East Region where motor bike riders were allowed to draw fuel from a filling station for free. The group’s also reported that the NDC and NPP Parliamentary aspirants for the Abuakwa North Constituency seat engaged in acts that could undermine the integrity of the upcoming elections. According to the report, Eastern Regional Minister Victor Smith and the NPPs J.B Danquah both contesting the Abuakwa North seat are culpable of vote buying activities that could corrupt voters.

The report which monitors abuse of incumbency in Ghana’s 2012 Elections found Victor Smith to have donated motorbikes with his initials written on them to some people in and around the Abuakwa North constituency while JB Danquah tiled the floor and replaced Louvre blades of the old Tafo Presbyterian church. Hard as the anti-corruption group attempted to bath the Mahama led administration with abuse of incumbency charges, The Al-Hajj’s well investigated findings proves otherwise. In as much as the opposition parties have not accused the ruling party for such charges, a lot of Ghanaians we spoke to wondered how the GII could accuse an opposition party for abuse of incumbency. “Normally it is a party in government that abuses incumbency. For the first time in the history of our country, we have an institution accusing both the ruling party and the opposition for abuse of incumbency. How cans an opposition party abuse incumbency?” he asked