NPP Damns Mills

Micheal Ampong, Greater Accra NPP Communication Directorate

The Greater Accra branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that the statement by President John Atta Mills that he is going to hand over peacefully in 2017 is an indication that he has predetermined the 2012 general election results.

'Do you remember his 'I have won the contest already' statement when the ruling NDC was preparing for the Sunyani Congress? Look at what happened there…they used manipulations, vote-buying and intimidation to get the verdict for him and he wants to do the same thing in 2012 but we will resist it this time around with all our might.'

Reacting to the President's comment at a news conference in Accra yesterday, Micheal Ampong of the Greater Accra NPP Communication Directorate said the opposition parties, particularly the NPP, would never allow President Mills and his NDC to intimidate them and go ahead to rig the 2012 contest.

He said the President's statement smacked of lawlessness since it was an attempt to disregard constitutional provisions and laws regarding the conduct of election, noting, 'It is illegal to talk about 2017 when the President's mandate is up to 2012.

'On the platform where the President made the comment, he was very concerned about the maintenance of law and order in the country, yet he ended up making statements that have the tendency to unleash lawlessness and indiscipline on the political landscape.'

Mr. Ampong accused the NDC of reneging on their campaign promises and also worsening the economic conditions of the people, saying, 'If the President and his government do not have any hidden agenda, how can he say he will hand over in 2017 when he has not even crossed the 2012 hurdle which I am very certain the NDC cannot cross with this performance.'

He said the only clear policies that the NDC government had been able to articulate were the perennial gas shortages and the surge in homosexuality in the country, adding, 'There is unprecedented systemic and institutional failures all over and it is evident in the way the NDC has handled the District Assemblies Elections, National Identification exercise and recent by-election since they came into office.'

Mr. Ampong said 'We found the President's statement misguided, non-committal and above all, pregnant with varying degrees of interpretations', adding, 'By critically analyzing this statement, we arrived at one conclusive verdict that the statement was unfortunate, ill conceived, an affront to the constitution, and open disrespect for the electorate of Ghana and the political parties, which has the potential of causing rage.

'We call on the international community and our development partners, including ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN as well as Civil Society Organizations, religious leaders and all well-meaning Ghanaians to prevail on President Mills and the NDC to break or divert their strain of thought of rigging the 2012 election for us to avoid the unthinkable in 2012,' he said.

He also urged the Electoral Commission, the National Commission on Civic Education and the security agencies 'to continue to remain as professional and dispassionate as possible in the discharge of their duties', adding that 'for being disrespectful to the Ghanaian electorate by impugning the 2012 election as a done deal, in the phase of monumental failure, the President should retract the statement and apologize to the people of Ghana without delay.'

Saaka Salia, another member of the regional communications team, said anytime a government functionary made a public statement and was asked to substantiate it, that same person came back to say it was a joke. He added, 'They are always playing with the intelligence of Ghanaians and I hope they don't come back to tell us that the President's statement is a joke.'

By William Yaw Owusu