Gabby asks: How far does Mills' victory reflect grassroots support?

The Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, is asking whether President Mills' overwhelming victory at the Sunyani congress reflects the sentiments of grassroots supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

President John Evans Atta Mills won the NDC congress by a landslide, polling 96.1 percent of votes to hand his opponent, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings a thorough defeat after she garnered only 3.1 per cent votes.

Though Gabby recognizes the president's victory as a feat worth commending, he has questioned the integrity of the conduct of the election just as supporters of Nana Konadu have done.

According to him, the NDC has a small Electoral College of about 3,000 delegates, while a sizeable number of delegates who make up the college are government appointees who, he claimed, voted to retain Mills based on their selfish and parochial interests.

Mr Otchere-Darko said Mrs Rawlings was motivated to challenge President Mills based on the despondency of those at the grassroots.

He therefore questioned whether or not Mills' victory was as a result of delegated votes or personalized ones. He was contributing to discussions on Peace FM's Kokrokoo programme Wednesday.

Gabby stated that although the president's victory was huge enough, it was crucial for the government to scrutinize itself to find out how it was doing in terms of performance.

He remarked that a second term presidency is not an entitlement, but is dependent on the government's performance juxtaposed with the opposition parties' proposed programmes.

Gabby regretted that it took “Rawlings' own baby to reduce his relevance in contemporary politics,” saying that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and like-minded persons who opposed the Rawlingses' ideologies, did all they could for decades to achieve the same result but failed.

He said Mrs Rawlings' defeat could also mean that as a country, Ghana may not be ready for a female president yet.

“I feel sorry to a point for the Rawlingses,” he said, “but whatever it is, maybe they also deserve it” because a lot of the difficulties they have encountered stemmed from their consistent support for Mills despite the misgivings expressed by others in the party such as Dr Obed Asamoah who broke away from the party in 2006.

According to Gabby, Obed Asamoah had indicated in an interview with Adom FM on 13th October 2010, that Konadu, other than Mills, deserved to lead the NDC.

“I am not ridiculing the credentials of President Mills with regard to him leading the NDC for a second term, that's not the intent. I can't be rooting for Konadu, in the normal course of things I can't be rooting for Konadu.

"...all I am saying is that she is entitled in terms of her contributions to the party. She is even more entitled to be a flag bearer than Mills,” Gabby quoted Dr Asamoah as sayings.

The Executive Director said what Obed meant was that Mills is not a leader who can win a second term.

Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana