NPP Defends Boycott

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Bobby, Kumasi. 12 years ago

I see the end of a political Party mainly due to how they have handle this defeat and contiinously determined not to respect the voice of the majority of Ghanaians voters.

I don't see myself voting for such a party in so ...
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I see the end of a political Party mainly due to how they have handle this defeat and contiinously determined not to respect the voice of the majority of Ghanaians voters.

I don't see myself voting for such a party in so so many elections to come.
MATHS @MARS 12 years ago

Nana Ankomea is saying that NPP will boycott the inaugural ceremonies of President John Dramani Mahama because they NPPians don't accept the results of the Presidential elections as announced by the EC. Yet they have accepted ...
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Nana Ankomea is saying that NPP will boycott the inaugural ceremonies of President John Dramani Mahama because they NPPians don't accept the results of the Presidential elections as announced by the EC. Yet they have accepted the results of the Parliamentary elections 38 of which they intend to contest in the course of this year. NPP therefore has accepted the results of the Parliamentary results what then are you contesting in the case of the 38 Constituencies? Why would you then contest what you have accepted? Where is your logic? I believe the NPP leadership is not just confused. It is confusion and mind you this is going to haunt the Party for a very long time to come. My voting for NPP will only be considered when there is a real REFORM in the Party leadership and the broadening of the Party base.
benjamin hazard 12 years ago

wen iz diz court case cmin over. Nana plz du wild oooo coz we rili need u in diz economy.

wen iz diz court case cmin over. Nana plz du wild oooo coz we rili need u in diz economy.
IDDI SIMON 12 years ago

I VEHEMENTLY THINK THIS PARTY CALLED NPP SHANT SEE THE LIGHT UNTIL THEY CONCEDE DEFEAT..

I VEHEMENTLY THINK THIS PARTY CALLED NPP SHANT SEE THE LIGHT UNTIL THEY CONCEDE DEFEAT..
Alugu 12 years ago

This party has self destroyed itself terribly! They obviously don't understand that Ghanaians are not interested in unnecessary chaos. That is how Atta-Mills was hailed when he refused to challenge the same irregularities tha ...
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This party has self destroyed itself terribly! They obviously don't understand that Ghanaians are not interested in unnecessary chaos. That is how Atta-Mills was hailed when he refused to challenge the same irregularities that gave NPP win in 2004.
zack 12 years ago

nana akomea is like an aempt ball without air?

nana akomea is like an aempt ball without air?
kuma-hamburg 12 years ago

These asante-akyim-npp people always
chop better and leave BONES for you
nana akomea and your guys overthere.
WHY ARE YOU WORRY YOURSELF NOT TO
SLEEP?

These asante-akyim-npp people always
chop better and leave BONES for you
nana akomea and your guys overthere.
WHY ARE YOU WORRY YOURSELF NOT TO
SLEEP?
Rash 12 years ago

Rubbish

Rubbish
fine boy 12 years ago

desperate people npp arm rubbers

desperate people npp arm rubbers
adowa 12 years ago

learn from the past and start over is the only way forward for npp. else watchout for lifetime doom

learn from the past and start over is the only way forward for npp. else watchout for lifetime doom

bongo 12 years ago

election is over!!! npp should amend their ways and come back another time. stop disturbing our ears in this country plsss!1

election is over!!! npp should amend their ways and come back another time. stop disturbing our ears in this country plsss!1
OBURONIBA FITAFITA 12 years ago

I am quoting directly from a well written article by Mr K A Nyanteh thus:

"It is the beginning of a new year. You know it is going to be a great year when we are starting off with what some have labeled the most importan ...
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I am quoting directly from a well written article by Mr K A Nyanteh thus:

"It is the beginning of a new year. You know it is going to be a great year when we are starting off with what some have labeled the most important political lawsuit in Ghana since independence. Let’s call it the gargantuan lawsuit if unprecedented does not fit. No matter what we call it, I have been more preoccupied with the potential impact the petition will have on our electoral system than about who will win or lose the case.

My goal is to convey why I think every well meaning Ghanaian, irrespective of party affiliation, should take a step back and think of the potential impact this case can have on our electoral system and our democracy.

On December 28th 2012, the National Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer, Nana Akuffo-Addo and two others filed a petition at the Registry of the Supreme Court of Ghana challenging the validity of the results of the presidential election as declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) chairman on December 9th, 2012. The outcome of the election is being challenged because the NPP claims the election was rigged in favor of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by President John Mahama.

As expected, supporters of the NPP are eager to see the case move forward. They actually maintain the hope that Nana Akuffo-Addo will win this case, and perhaps be crowned the victor. Not surprisingly, the NDC supporters think otherwise. They feel the lawsuit is a waste of time. The election is over and we should just move on. They feel Nana Akuffo-Addo is just whipping up his base with false allegations of electoral fraud.

To underscore the importance of the potential impact this case can have on our democracy, imagine what Ghana will look like as a one party state. Do we really want an authoritarian one party state like Mobutu’s erstwhile Congo or an Obiang Equatorial Guinea? If we do not want to become victims of an authoritarian one party state, then we must do whatever is necessary in our democracy to prevent that. As citizens we have an obligation to ensure that the process for choosing and replacing our political leaders and government representatives is through free and fair elections.

A broken electoral system is the beginning of the continuous election of one party. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is a case in point.

Let’s face it: Every democracy is as strong as three (3) key elements: 1. The strength of the party (or parties) in opposition. 2. The strength and independence of institutions. 3. The strength of the media and it’s interaction with an engaged citizenry.

In several democratically mature countries, the most important of these elements is the media. The media is powerful and strong because the citizens can afford to stay engaged. The media houses are significantly wealthy and can very rarely be corrupted. They can expose the government and politicians in cases of corruption, abuse of power or failure to perform the duties for which they were elected. The citizens consider it their civic duty to participate in their democracy by staying informed and taking action by organizing several groups of similar interests to exert political pressure.

The branches of government and ancillary institutions are also very strong and independent. For instance the US Supreme Court could have easily struck down Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act commonly called Obamacare, making it difficult for Obama to successfully run for a second term. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US, which compiles and announces the monthly unemployment rate, is considered independent and not influenced by the government. The publishing of the monthly unemployment rate, can directly affect the outcome of an election. In fact, the final unemployment figures reported before the recent U.S. elections were quite low, leading some in conservative circles to conclude that they had been doctored to favor President Obama. Of course, these allegations were unfounded and not entertained by the labor department.

This is not the case in most developing democracies. Some in the media have been corrupted and the institutions have been weakened through bribery and lack of adequate oversight and accountability. Sadly, the majority of the population lack adequate education and do not have the capacity and motivation to stand up for their rights. The only element left to check corruption, the abuse of power and the failure to perform duties by politicians and the government is the opposition.

It wasn’t necessarily the media who brought pressure on the NDC government for paying all those judgment debts. It was the opposition. The whole thing was started by Kennedy Agyapong of the NPP. Most of the rallies to create the awareness of corruption on the wrongful judgment debt payments were organized by the opposition.

The NPP in opposition also agitated for changes in our electoral system, which culminated in the introduction of transparent ballot boxes and the biometric voting system. Through the work of the opposition and its oversight, the government is forced to perform its duties. Recently the opposition took the government to task, pushing for improvements in the organization of the Nation Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Single Spine Salary Structure just to name a few.

In a democracy the people reserve the authority through their sacred ballot to determine who will represent the government at the national and parliamentary levels. The government is left with the option of executing its duties appropriately or be voted out of office. The fear of being voted out of office due to lack of performance, serves as a motivator for the incumbent to do what is right by the people.

If the incumbent is able to corrupt the electoral system and therefore become immune to being voted out, they can stay in power indefinitely and the democracy transitions into a one party state. This is exactly what Kwame Nkrumah cunningly accomplished after independence and consequently ended up in his overthrow through a coup d’état. In 1964, he proposed a constitutional amendment which would make the CPP the only legal party and crowned himself president for life of both nation and party. The amendment passed with 99.91 percent of the vote, an implausibly high total that led observers to condemn the vote as "obviously rigged”.

Ghana must avoid going down this path again. This is why the lawsuit to challenge the results of the just ended 2012 elections should be of paramount interest to every well meaning Ghanaian. The lawsuit presents a unique opportunity to expose the flaws within our electoral system.

The debate within the public domain, so far as this lawsuit is concerned, is whether NPP has the evidence to support their allegations of electoral fraud in the court of law. Though that debate is not the subject of this article, some of the flaws within the electoral system have been outlined by observers as follows:

1. The network service provided by STL to the Electoral Commission (EC) for faxing the results from the various constituencies is an open and shared network with minimal security features. This means transmitted data can be intercepted and manipulated. 2. It’s hard to believe but the collation of the results at the constituency level was done by manual addition. 3. In spite of the rule that all parties must agree to counted number of votes recorded on blue/pink/read sheets, some polling stations accepted results without the consent of all parties. 4. No verification, no vote was not followed. 5. The polling register was given out at the last minute so it couldn’t be vetted by all parties before voting. But why should it be the responsibility of the political parties to vet the register anyway? In the US, for instance, do the Republicans or Democrats have to go through the polling register before they vote?

In a mature democracy, a thorough review of the performance by the institution of the electoral commission itself, would have listed these flaws as issues to be fixed before the next election. Additionally, the media through the engagement of the people would have exerted pressure on the electoral commission to fix these issues before the next election.

Instead of having a strong and fair electoral commission necessary for the advancement of our democracy, we have a weakened and impatient EC chairman whose only answer to the opposition when asked to exercise patience to resolve alleged inconsistencies in electoral results was, “Go to court.”. We are fortunate as a nation that the opposition did not take the laws into their own hands as happened in Kenya, but decided to follow due process and file a petition.

As good and engaged citizens, we should follow this case carefully to determine whether the judicial institutions, and the supreme court in particular is free, fair, and truly independent. As well meaning citizens, we should define fairness by the merits of the case, evidence provided and judgment meted. But most importantly, we must seek reforms in our electoral system.

To add insult to injury, the chairman of EC said it is the responsibility of the political parties to ensure that the elections are free and fair. This responsibility will come at a huge cost; consider the following scenario:

1. Having agents to vet the polling register before voting. (About 275 times 4 equal to 3300 agents) 2. Having multiple agents at each polling station on election day (About 26002 times 3 equal to 78006 agents at the minimum) 3. Having a collation center in 275 constituencies (275 times 3. That is 825 agents) 4. Having an IT infrastructure to collate the votes in real time so you could challenge results. (That is about 40 employees) 5. Having lawyers standing by to file cases immediately.

When all these expense items are compiled, and the operational costs are calculated, a political party will have to seek additional funds to set up a monitoring department almost as large as the electoral commission itself. This cost will be too much for a challenger to bear and will therefore give the incumbent an undue advantage in any election. If we allow this to happen, political campaigns will become so expensive that the opposition cannot raise the funds, the incumbent cannot be voted out of office and we will possibly descend into the abyss of a one party state.

We must not allow this to happen. We must leverage this lawsuit as a catalyst to transform our flawed electoral system. This lawsuit should be viewed as a national issue and not an issue for the opposition alone. It happens to be NPP in this case but the same scenario if left unchecked could leave another party with the same fate.

Since the opposition has become our last hope for checking and holding the incumbent government accountable, this lawsuit must assume a critical national stature. It is our best hope of having a meaningful national debate about the flaws within our electoral system. Our civic engagement is necessary to ensure that the right thing is done.

Will the NPP lawsuit bring any changes to our electoral system and therefore improve our democracy?

It’s all a matter of perspective. If we keep an open mind, stay engaged with the media and maintain pressure for change, the flaws in the electoral system will be debated in court and fixed by the EC. But if we keep a narrow view and leave this as an NPP issue, we will miss the opportunity to address the issues plaguing our broken electoral system.

And when we are left with a broken electoral system, NPP will obviously be alienated this time round. However, next time it will not just be NPP who is locked out. It will be many of the honest individuals who refuse to use or succumb to corruption to win elections. The honest leaders we so much crave will be alienated. We will only be left with the corrupt ones who will only lead us down the path of Mobutu’s Congo.

Let’s stay engaged. Push for implementation of reforms to our electoral system and improve our democracy. God bless Ghana."

Copyright Kwabena Agyeman Nyanteh
Adam 12 years ago

Akomya has no sense. he speaks like primary one kid. Npp had distroyed already. These Npp mother fuckers are distroying the imake of the party.
No matter how things happened Npp should conceded defit. how comes Ndc mps are ...
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Akomya has no sense. he speaks like primary one kid. Npp had distroyed already. These Npp mother fuckers are distroying the imake of the party.
No matter how things happened Npp should conceded defit. how comes Ndc mps are more than Npp? even if they give the country to Nana he cant rule Ghana. the majority is for the Ndc. Nana Addo God does not make you a leader.

Nana is an Evil man but God will surely deal with these wicked people. someone who talks about all die be die. how can a human call for war and God will forgive them? no way.
Yahya 12 years ago

What at all thats the npp party want from Ghanaians.Cant they fined somewhere and sleep that we are tied of them.

What at all thats the npp party want from Ghanaians.Cant they fined somewhere and sleep that we are tied of them.
anna 12 years ago

the courts are there for disputes and to seek justic i dont get why people are so worried about this court case lets the sc give the verdict. for now JM is the president elect until the final verdict

the courts are there for disputes and to seek justic i dont get why people are so worried about this court case lets the sc give the verdict. for now JM is the president elect until the final verdict
LOVE 12 years ago

LET SPEAK IN LOW TONE, DESPITE OUR FEELINGS.

LET SPEAK IN LOW TONE, DESPITE OUR FEELINGS.
Nyame Ekuma 12 years ago

Eebei, Eebei, Nana "Odorkon", Ebei Nana 'Okenkey' Akomea , Eebei.

We wish u will boycott Parliament for 8 yrs. That will help speed up the dev, agenda for a better Ghana. We are tired of ur NONSENSE.
Over 5 million NPP fo ...
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Eebei, Eebei, Nana "Odorkon", Ebei Nana 'Okenkey' Akomea , Eebei.

We wish u will boycott Parliament for 8 yrs. That will help speed up the dev, agenda for a better Ghana. We are tired of ur NONSENSE.
Over 5 million NPP folks being taken hostage by an arrogant evil dwarf. U are all dwarfs except Wereko Brobbey and Prez Kufuor.

Akufo Addo is nobody. Look at how his stage tumbled and crumbled in Kumasi with his cracked bald head dangling to the ground llike HUMPTY DUMPTI.

Akufo Addo has bn rejected by Ghana bcos Mahama looks more presidential than the old crook.

Akufo Addo shd leave Ghana i peace ooooooo tom. Aaaaba !
Adjoa 12 years ago

Look at this fool

Look at this fool
barbara uk woodgreen 12 years ago

huojerdboydreü

huojerdboydreü
AMA SERWAH 12 years ago

LET NANA BE PRESIDENT SO WE HAVE PEACE

LET NANA BE PRESIDENT SO WE HAVE PEACE

AMA SERWAH 12 years ago

JUST GIVE NANA CHANCE TO BE PRESIDENT

JUST GIVE NANA CHANCE TO BE PRESIDENT
Whatever 12 years ago

When the people speak, All must abide. They have chosen Mahama so just move o. Who knows ? you might get yourself elected as president one day. You don't know what the future holds for us all so respect the democratic will o ...
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When the people speak, All must abide. They have chosen Mahama so just move o. Who knows ? you might get yourself elected as president one day. You don't know what the future holds for us all so respect the democratic will of the people
Whatever 12 years ago

Akomea harbours dreams of a bias court ruling which will call on Mahama to step down for Akuffo Addo to use his miserable 47% to come and rule Ghana? Like pigs fly, DREAM ON. Tamper with democracy at the peril of your lives

Akomea harbours dreams of a bias court ruling which will call on Mahama to step down for Akuffo Addo to use his miserable 47% to come and rule Ghana? Like pigs fly, DREAM ON. Tamper with democracy at the peril of your lives
Nana Akua Amankwah 12 years ago

what ever been de case npp the largest opposition party shal surely come to power again.isha allahu!!

what ever been de case npp the largest opposition party shal surely come to power again.isha allahu!!
Agyemang 12 years ago

no npp again oh they are criminals.

no npp again oh they are criminals.
Atta K 12 years ago

Is taken the court too long to decide this issue.You know Ghanaians already.Just as he sworn in the question becomes let him stay afterall no one can change the furtune of ghanaians.They are all the same.Afterall 4 years is j ...
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Is taken the court too long to decide this issue.You know Ghanaians already.Just as he sworn in the question becomes let him stay afterall no one can change the furtune of ghanaians.They are all the same.Afterall 4 years is just around the conner so let's not entertain the swaering in and that black-tall guy(Kuffour) must be stoped .He has no justification to attend.He is a former Preisident because of NPP so why defy NPP orders and do his own things.
Paa nii 12 years ago

PPP should position itself for NPP supporters
Cos NPP is almost buried I don't know how they are going to survive 2016
Nana is finished

PPP should position itself for NPP supporters
Cos NPP is almost buried I don't know how they are going to survive 2016
Nana is finished
EKOW 12 years ago

If the NDC and Mr. John D.Mahama know perfectly well that there were no malpractises in the election and also have confidence in the judiciary why are they panicking for NPP going to court? What is wrong with someone going to ...
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If the NDC and Mr. John D.Mahama know perfectly well that there were no malpractises in the election and also have confidence in the judiciary why are they panicking for NPP going to court? What is wrong with someone going to court ?
kwadwo amoateng 12 years ago

no justice, no peace said by peter tosh

no justice, no peace said by peter tosh
scomba 12 years ago

NPP will not be in power again..... Akuffo Addo has spoil your party for you

NPP will not be in power again..... Akuffo Addo has spoil your party for you

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NPP Defends Boycott

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