Rawlings Voted African Man Of Year 2000

Paris, France -- Former Ghanaian President John Jerry Rawlings has been voted Man of the Year 2000 by a majority of listeners of the Paris-supported Africa Number One Radio, for facilitating democratic transition in his country.

Former Senegalese President Abdou Diouf emerged as runner- up in the poll, conducted by the Gabon-based station, which boasts about 30 million listeners in Africa and Europe.

The majority of listeners were said to have voted for Rawlings because of Ghana's peaceful and democratic transfer of power.

Many of the listeners felt he offers a ray of hope in a continent torn by turmoil, often as a result of the unwillingness by leaders to accept defeat in elections.

The listeners also hailed the action of Diouf who led his country to a peaceful transition in March 2000.

The final results of the poll announced 12 January showed the listeners were almost evenly divided in the choice between Rawlings and Diouf, with the latter gaining a slight edge.

Rawlings won 50.5 percent of the vote while Diouf garnered 49.5 percent.

According to members of a discussion panel chaired by journalist Jules Ahadji Komlan of Africa Number One, Sunday, the choice of Rawlings as Man of the year by listeners who were mainly Francophonie also demonstrated a significant thaw in the language divide among Africans.

He noted that African listeners were able to rise above the Francophone-Anglophone divide in their assessment democratic evolution in the continent.

According to journalist Antoin Glaser, by voting Rawlings as the African Man of the year, the African youth and other listeners of the radio were in effect saying that they had an interest in promoting the positive aspects of an election in neighbouring countries.

Glaser, Editor of 'La Lettre du Continent,' a magazine that focuses on Africa, said the listeners equally demonstrated their desire for "an Africa where leaders accept to quit power" after a hitch-free democratic election.

Another member of the panel and foreign desk editor of Paris-based weekly, 'Le Point,' Mireille Duteil, said Rawling's peaceful departure held a significant appeal for listeners of Africa number One.

"These listeners saw Rawlings as a young Air Force Captain who rose to power and succeeded in revamping Ghana's economic condition which was in a deplorable state when he (assumed) office."

Rawlings and Diouf, she said, had become symbols of a functional democracy by demonstrating that peaceful transition of power can take root in Africa.

Frederique Dorce, Editor-in-Chief of Jeune Afrique Economie magazine, said the radio listeners also wanted to send a strong message to other African leaders.

He said other African leaders must borrow a leaf from Rawlings who did not try to amend the constitution to entrench himself in power.