NDC Writes to Embassies

The power-sharing agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has commenced as Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of the party's founder, cries her way to the international community with claims of imminent bloodbath on December 7 when the country goes to the polls.

The bloodbath, according to her, will take place as a result of a rigging arrangement by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the polls.

Leading the international campaign front in the NDC's game-plan for the polls, the wife of former President Jerry John Rawlings has added the Japanese mission to her distribution list of a document, making a case for a foreign intervention in an election which has even not taken place.

In her correspondence to the Japanese Embassy using the letterhead of the militant 31st December Women's Movement (DWM) of which she is president, she averred that the imminent bloodbath will consume mostly women and children.

The correspondence signed by Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and dated 15/10/08 is attached to an addendum spelling out what in the opinion of the NDC, are detailed plans by the ruling NPP to rig the polls.

She states: “I write to draw your attention to the attached paper prepared by the government of the NPP to try and rig this year's election.”

Continuing she wrote: “As the president of a women's organisation that empowers women, I am bringing it to your attention, since in the event of any unrest it is the women and children of this country who will be most affected.”

The correspondence ends with a call on the Japanese mission to do all it can to make the elections free and fair.

The purported rigging blueprint of the NPP which she claims to have sent out to the other political parties and foreign missions, is among a number of others which have been clandestinely distributed in order to paint the ruling party black.

The correspondence, also fired to six other political parties, seeks to have them toe the line of discrediting the polls with a view to having the international community call for a Zimbabwe or Kenya type power-sharing arrangement for the country.

Available intelligence give credence to this NDC plan which has already been kicked against by the ruling NPP.

Dubbed, “Issues For Consideration Towards The Voters Registration And The December 2008 Polls Codenamed 'Ways And Means” the NDC among other things claims that the ruling NPP seeks to influence electoral officers with monetary and other gains.

The NDC also claims that the ruling NPP seeks to transmit its own results early to the party headquarters for them to collate and announce to FM stations.

Even the barracks of the security services have not been left out of the distribution list, with some of them being literally littered with what the NPP has described as spurious materials.

One of such documents has to do with the outrageous bank accounts of government ministers whose figures have been found to be so huge that not even the country's banker of last resort has so much in its vault.

The former president's wife has on multiple occasions tried to distance her movement away from the NDC.

The movement, during her husband's tenure in office, enjoyed copious financial support from both state and international sources for the ostensible execution of female gender enhancement programmes.

In an attempt to give the 31st DWM a new face, its original logo, an AK 47 assault rifle, has been replaced with a Ghana map sandwiched between two umbrellas.

The movement is an important arm of the NDC having provided the party over the years with the necessary support in the form of organizing women in the rural areas.

Although Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, like her husband, seeks to create the impression that there is tension in the country, security agencies and indeed the political parties have frowned at the position, stating that there is no cause for alarm.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, a few days ago assured the nation that the security agencies are in control and that Ghana will not burn as being spread by a section of politicians in the country.

Intelligence reports say it is part of the grand scheme of the NDC to create maximum confusion on election day and the days after that so that the credibility of the electoral exercise will be questioned by the international community.

When this is done, the NDC leadership can then put out on the public domain a power-sharing agenda for consideration by Ghanaians.

The NDC has for sometime now been questioning the ability of the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct a credible election in the country.

Earlier, the party accused the government of not releasing adequate funding to the Commission to perform its role adequately especially when the reopening of the voters' register met with a number of bottlenecks.

Unfortunately for the NDC propaganda machinery, the EC did not agree with them explaining that government had resourced them adequately, and adding that the political parties were themselves responsible for the ado which characterized the exercise.

It is worth noting that the EC later asked all the political parties to join it in cleaning the register which it explained was bloated with the names of minors, aliens and others who were unqualified to engage in such a national exercise.

Political observers have expressed worry over the attempts by the NDC to question the credibility of the EC, a development which compelled the Commission's Chairman to wonder how the system can be compromised considering the security arrangement to guard against rigging on the ground.

Ghana's EC has won the recognition of the international community as evidenced by the invitation to Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, its chairman, to support elections in some African countries. By A.R. Gomda