NDC advised to avoid acts of instability

Accra Jan. 13, GNA - Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Efutu, on Thursday urged opposition political parties to show genuine and firm disposition towards national peace, cohesion and stability.

"Even though it is the opposition's constitutional rights to seek for legal redress on any electoral matters, actions that have the potential of creating constitutional instability must be avoided irrespective of the merits", Mr Owusu-Agyei told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra.

Reacting to recent pronouncements by leading members of Professor John Evans Atta Mills' Campaign Team to the effect that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would take the Electoral Commission to court over the results of the last month's Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, the Efutu NPP MP criticised the NDC for what, he said, was their "penchant for creating confusion and political mischief".

The NDC on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 hinted that it intended to contest the credibility of Elections 2004 results in court.

Mr Owusu-Agyei appealed to all peace loving Ghanaians to stay away from any action that could undermine the Constitution because, "Ghana needs peace to move forward. We cannot develop democracy on a dangerous political terrain."

He said Ghanaians rejected the NDC in both Elections 2000 and 2004 for inefficiency, insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary people, high-handedness and mismanagement.

Mr Owusu-Agyei said these were evident from the large-scale unemployment that characterized the eight-year rule of the NDC adding that the people had not forgotten their suffering, hardship and poverty.

He said Election 2004 electioneering campaign showed that not only was NDC short of ideas for turning the economy round, it had also lost tracks with political campaigning strategies, monitoring of polls and other related matters.

The only way the NDC wanted to salvage their image and dwindling membership was to create a constitutional crisis, blame their defeat on the Electoral Commission and everybody else.

Mr Owusu-Agyei, who was a Director of Finance at the Ministry of Health, called on the Ghanaians to resist the trap of the NDC to hold the nation to ransom for their electoral defeat.

He said that if the country were to enjoy prosperity and guarantee the future security of the nation under Positive Change Chapter II, then all should join hands to condemn the NDC's diabolic ploy.

The Efutu MP said the Government under Positive Change Chapter I demonstrated that it was more sensitive to the welfare of the people and was poised to deliver good governance, adherence to constitutionality and the promotion of the rule of law.