Prince Ofosu Sefah
The opposition NDC supporters need to be reminded frequently to temper their overconfidence about winning in 2024, for the sake of their own sanity and the peace of our nation.
When Hon. Bryan Acheampong expressed his assuredness about the NPP winning the 2024 Elections by any means necessary, as a democrat from the stock of the law-abiding NPP, he obviously was not musing about resorting to illegal means.
Reckon though that it is said that if a blind man says he will stone you, he may already be standing on one. From a data standpoint, the fact is that since 2004 when we began to generally have our freest and fairest elections in the current democratic era - the 4th Republic, and more straightforward two-party elections, the NDC has only won twice; in the 2008 runoff by 40,586 and by 325,863 in 2012, riding on the back of fresh sympathy from the death of the Late President Prof. Mills.
The NPP on the other hand won by 673,706 in 2004, by a small margin in the first round of 2008 albeit barely ending up under 50% so I skip counting that win, by 984,570 in 2016, and by 532,866 in 2020. The foregoing shows that the NPP has been averaging about 365,000 more than the NDC over the last 20 years, which is higher than the highest win by the NDC furring - 325,863.
So, although, there are extraordinary global economic headwinds over the last couple of years, driving economic hardships, based on the data above, along with other factors such as the novelty of the DMB Candidacy, his unparalleled and infectious work ethic, leading to a more robust campaign effort, and the recycling of a soundly rejected former President by the NDC, the provably superior Sector-by-Sector record of the current NPP government vis-à-vis the previous NDC government, it is very realistic that the NPP can pull off a closely-fought win in 2024.
Therefore, both supporters of the NPP and NDC, especially, the over-exuberant NDC supporters need to be constantly reminded of these facts so that minds are psyched properly for ultimate outcome. In the more mature US Democracy for instance, since the passage of their 22nd Amendment in 1951 limited Presidents to a maximum of two terms, their major Parties have experienced 1 Term, 2 and 3 Terms.
There is really nothing like guaranteed 8 years for one Party, followed by 8 years for the other anywhere. Over time, we will also experience similar things here.
In fact, since 2008, the Democrat Party, despite various challenges in their economic and political environments, even as the Ruling Party, has received more Popular Votes than their Republican counterpart. Indeed, but for some peculiar Electoral College technical win by President Donald Trump in 2016, the Democrats could have won 4 straight elections, per their Popular Votes performance.
Please, note that Ghana's presidential election system is based on a popular vote system, with the only caveat being that the winner needs a minimum share of over 50% of the valid votes cast.
So, for the sake of preserving the peace in our Mother Land Ghana, we should all appreciate that this impending election is a very competitive one, which election results will only favour the Party that persuades and strategies best, to earn the win the hard way.
