The Elmina Declaration, Matters Arising

President Kufuor has declared his support for the candidature of the CPP parliamentary candidate hopeful for the Komenda, Edina, Eguafo, and Abirim (KEEA) constituency, Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum.

Though Mr. Kufuor's open declaration of support for Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom clearly undermines the authority of his own New Patriotic Party's delegates congress that had previously elected the DCE of the KEEA, Nana Ato Arthur, at the NPP's primaries to represent the party in the constituency, critics who a few years ago saw everything wrong with President Rawlings declaring his support for his then Vice President, Prof. Mills, appear not to have noticed anything wrong with Mr. Kufuor's very undemocratic and dictatorial behaviour.

It would be recalled that prior to the 2000 elections, in the wake of rather destructive speculations that sought to create the impression that President Rawlings was preparing the grounds to enable the then first lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings to succeed him, a speculation deliberately engineered and sustained by the pro-NPP press, President Rawlings openly declared that he would support the candidature of Prof. Mills should he (Mills) express interest in running for the office of President on the NDC ticket.

President Rawlings was roundly condemned and vilified by the NPP and their media allies for declaring his support for Prof. Mills, notwithstanding the fact that his declaration did not preclude the NDC from going to congress to choose a candidate.

That episode, which came to be known as the Swedru declaration in Ghanaian political lexicon, was also, and continues to be, used by opponents of the NDC to illustrate what they said was lack of "internal democracy" in the NDC.

Today, President Kufuor has actually declared his support for the candidature of Dr. Nduom, notwithstanding the fact that the party of which he (Mr. Kufuor) is the leader had actually held its primaries and has elected a parliamentary candidate to represent the party, but not whimper of disapproval is heard from those who a few years ago were crying themselves hoarse over President Rawlings' declaration of support for Prof. Mills. The hypocrisy is simply astounding.

The CDDs and all those other psuedo-democrats have simply adopted a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' attitude when it comes to the NPP.

The question now is; is there truly "internal democracy" in the NPP if the party leader can unilaterally virtually topple decisions made by the party's delegates at congress? Oh, democracy has fled to brutish beasts.