US poll will have no impact on Ghana's - NDC

The Director of Elections for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, has allayed the fears of his party’s supporters that election results in America could affect the fortunes of the NDC back home in December’s presidential elections.

Americans voted for change on Wednesday, 9 November, with the election of Donald Trump as president, beating the governing Democratic Party’s candidate Hillary Clinton.

Allaying fears that Ghanaians will also vote for change as has been done in America, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo, addressing NDC supporters at Adum-Banso in the Mpohor constituency of the Western Region, said comparing the American election with that of Ghana would be comparing apples and oranges.

He said the NDC was very much united, unlike the NPP, and is poised to win power in the upcoming elections.

“When the Ivorians voted, they retained Alassane Ouattara to continue his work. The NPP argues on their campaign platforms that if you are older you should be elected president because age comes with experience, but they refused to tell the electorate the Ivorians voted for continuity. The sitting president in America, Barrack Obama, has enjoyed his two terms but in Ghana our president is done with only one term, seeking his second term so we cannot compare apples and mangoes,” he stated.

“We cannot compare the poll in America to that of Ghana. The analysis is that when Hillary beat Bernie Sanders to become the candidate for the Democrats, they couldn’t unite. They became divided, they couldn’t bring themselves together under one unit, and that is why Hillary lost. The same applies to the NPP. When they elected Nana Akufo-Addo as their flag bearer, he has sacked his chairman and general secretary so the situation is that if your party is not united you cannot win an election, but NDC is completely united.”

The vice president, Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, who is on a four-day campaign tour of the region, also urged all NDC supporters to move from house to house, window to window, and sell the message of transforming Ghana and changing lives to the electorate.