A number of people Public Agenda spoke to shortly after final results of the presidential poll was declared regarded the outcome as victory for the NDC due to its impressive performance in the Parliamentary elections. While the NDC increased its Parliamentary seats from 94 to 112, a rise by 18 seats, the NPP’s have plummeted from 128 to 109 representing a drop of 18 seats. Many of them blame President John Agyekum Kufuor for the NPP’s poor showing.
Afia Teye, a teacher and an NPP sympathiser, claims that the timing of some policies of President Kufuor though economically sound was politically suicidal. “A classic example is the sale of Ghana Telecom; which some economist say was a prudent financial transaction but politically imprudent. Little wonder that the NDC exploited that to their advantage, she expatiates.
Mis Teye cited the purchase of the presidential jet as another factor why the party could not deliver a first round victory. “The public felt it was dissipation of the scanty resources of the nation. They would have been content with one plane and not two.”
Afia also accused the President of not participating actively in Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign. “Compare President Kufuor’s involvement with that of former President Rawlings in Prof. Atta Mills’ campaign. Rawlings was at the forefront while President Kufuor was traveling abroad in honour of invitations he could have declined. He joined the campaign when it was rather late,”.
Kojo Tano, a child rights activist and also an NPP supporter, attributes the loss of constituencies along the coastal belt by the NPP to the pussy-footing attitude of government in fixing their premix-fuel problems and what he terms the “twilight sod cutting” for the start of the proposed breakwaters for their fishing trawlers and canoes.
“Why do you wait till about two weeks to elections before you move to cut the sod for such projects that have been on the drawing board all these while. Didn’t you see on TV that at the ground breaking ceremony at James Town or so some of the residents were saying that it was a bait to entice them to vote for the government? You see, it was ill-timed”.
He believes that the Gas in particular voted against the NPP because they felt their pleas for the release of their lands went unheeded and it was acted when the elections was in sight to secure votes. “Even the Gas maintained that what the government did was halfhearted and that they wanted total release of all their lands which the State has divested,” he stressed.
Kojo was also of the view that the government could not articulate its success story regarding the social interventions such as School Feeding Programme, the Capitation Grant, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Free Health Care for Pregnant Women and Free Transportation for school children.
“I blame this squarely on the President for persistently changing Ministers for Information. Fancy that within eight years, there have been five Ministers for Infornation-Jake obetsebi Lamptey, Dan Botwe, Hon. Nana Akomea, Kwamena Bartels, Madam Oboshie Sai Cofie and finally Hon. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng. It didn’t allow for long term planning, strategic communication, and could not counter effective NDC propaganda which the party rightly used to its advantage,” he analyses.
He again believes that the rather large number of 17 aspirants who contested the NPP’s presidential primary with its attendant “indecent and reckless spending of money” angered many Ghanaians who found it difficult to make ends meet.
Nevertheless, James Kpodo, a shop attendant and staunch supporter of the NDC, thinks Prof. Mills’ “house to house campaign” which brought him into personal touch with the electorate performed the magic, which translated into the party’s splendid performance. “The emotions and human feelings generated by those encounters won the hearts of the people and they accordingly voted for him,” he explains.
“I also believe that the general condition of economic hardship prevailing in the country prodded Ghanaians to vote for a change of government, hoping a new government will bring about a change in their fortunes.”
