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29.08.2014 Opinion

Nana Addo Has Never Lost An Election

By Daily Guide
By Kwesi BineyBy Kwesi Biney
29.08.2014 LISTEN

What is important is to create an environment which allows every citizen access to the ladder of a better life. I am not motivated by riches. I am motivated by a desire to enrich the lives of people. I believe the ability to do so offers the greatest sense of fulfilment and happiness any human being can ask for.  (Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Africawatch, August 2014).

In just about 48 hours, the Great New Patriotic Party (NPP) will embark on perhaps its last but one journey towards the completion of its internal elections in preparation of the 2016 general elections, and that is the presidential primaries. What is going to happen on Sunday is a Special Delegates Conference of less than 800 party people, representing all segments of our party positions so recognised by the NPP Constitution.

The party's Constitution, following the huge army of contestants in the 2007 flagbearership race, was amended to limit the number of candidates for the presidential race to five, and 'where there are more than five contestants for nomination as the Party's Presidential Candidate, a Special Electoral College shall cast their votes by secret ballot for the first five contestants to be shortlisted.' This is what is going to take place on Sunday, some 48 hours from today. In this case, seven aspirants have filed; the Special Electoral College will vote to select five through one delegate, one vote system.

All the aspirants have had the opportunity to campaign vigorously to get the delegates to vote for them to at least cross the first hurdle and see whether they would have any chance in the final major elections to be contested in October, 2014. Any keen observer of the campaigns cannot fail to note that there is only one target in this seven-man contest.  The one target in this campaign is Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. It is known by any political observer that he is the man to beat; he is way ahead of his contestants.

As it is normal with any competition, it is the leading contender who takes much of the flak from his opponents. All the six contestants believe that Nana Addo has had two opportunities to have brought the party to power, but failed to do so in both 2008 and 2012, and therefore the party should reject him. The usual refrain or the swan song by some of his contestants is that Nana Addo is unable to attract floating voters to ensure that the party wins political power.

While I appreciate the position of some of Nana Addo's contestants, as far as politicking is concerned, I also find it extremely difficult to think on the same line with them; my reason being that they are looking at electoral victory from just one perspective. Ours is unlike certain systems of democracy where the presidential elections are held differently from the other elections and at different times, namely the legislative elections for example.

Ghana's election cycle is done once, on the same day for the Executive and the Legislature, and as I would presently explain, there is a direct correlation between the outcome of the parliamentary (legislative) elections and the presidential elections. Now let us look at the general elections that have been organised in this country since the Fourth Republic. In the 1992 elections, the legislative elections were held separately from the presidential (executive) elections. The presidential elections were first held, after which the opposition political parties boycotted the parliamentary elections because of mass malpractices.

In the parliamentary elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had 189 seats, the National Convention Party (NCP) had eight seats, the Eagle Party had one seat and Independent candidates were two.  After the 1992 elections and the controversies it generated, a lot of discussions among the various political parties brought changes in the electoral process and finally an agreement was reached by all the political parties that both parliamentary and presidential elections be held on the same day. So it came to pass that the 1996 general elections were all held on the same day, began at the same time and ended at the same time. The parliamentary results were as follows:

NDC—–133 seats
NPP —–  61 seats
PNC——   1 seat
CPP——- 5 seats
Total —– 200
The NDC Presidential Candidate, Flt. Lt Jerry John Rawlings, garnered about 60 percent of the votes in the presidential elections and was sworn in as President. The results of the 2000 parliamentary elections after the first round were as follows:

NPP———101
NDC——–  91
PNC——–     3
CPP———    1
Independent—4
None of the presidential candidates made the 50% +1 vote requirement spelt out in the national Constitution to be declared the President. A second round of voting became necessary; and as a result of the lead that the NPP had had in the parliamentary elections, the NPP Presidential Candidate, Mr J.A. Kufuor, won the second round of the presidential elections. The results of the 2004 parliamentary elections were as follows:

NPP—-   128 seats
NDC—-    94 seats
PNC—–     4 seats
CPP—–      3 seats
Independent–4
President Kufuor won a second term with ease without the need for a second round because the NPP had majority in Parliament.  Let us look at the 2008 elections and the parliamentary elections:

NDC—— 116 seats
NPP——- 107 seats
PNC——      2 seats
CPP——-      1 seat
Independent–4 seats
The Presidential Candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, led the presidential elections with 49.77 percent. He could not cross the 50%+1 because the party had lost 21 seats it held before the elections to the NDC. The NDC, having taken the majority seats in Parliament, got Ghanaians to vote for its Presidential Candidate, late Prof John Evans Atta-Mills, to become the President of Ghana.

In 2012, the NDC again had 147 seats, the NPP had 123, PNC 1, CPP 1 and Independent candidates had 3. The total number of seats was 275. Once again the NDC took control of Parliament. Surprisingly, Nana Akufo-Addo had more votes than the total votes of the 275 NPP candidates in the same elections. Another mind burgling outcome of the 2012 elections is the fact that the total votes of the NPP parliamentary candidates was more than the total votes of the NDC candidates who had 24 more seats in Parliament than the NPP.

From the above figures, it is very evident that any presidential candidate who wins elections in this country flies on the wings of the performance of the parliamentary candidates. Nana Addo in the two previous elections performed better than his parliamentary candidates. How could he have been responsible for the defeat of the party in the two elections under discussion? Strangely enough, some of his contestants who are accusing him lost their seats in 2008, further making it difficult for Nana Addo to go beyond the 50%+1 vote.

As if it was designed to ensure Nana Addo's defeat in 2008, a number of sitting Metropolitan and District Chief Executives who had won the primaries to contest as our parliamentary candidates in some orphan constituencies were dismissed for allegedly showing loyalty to Nana Addo during the flagbearership race earlier. How do you dismiss your own parliamentary candidate from office—close to general elections—and expect good results when your major opponent is well known for turning emaciated goats into fat cows?

These candidates lost, and we turned round to blame Nana Addo for our collective defeat. Following the above analysis, and the blatant fraud perpetrated by the Electoral Commission in 2012, why should Nana Addo be blamed for the two past results of the elections? I plead with the Special Delegates to vote massively for Nana Addo on Sunday for two reasons: one, the Ghanaian populace is yearning for him as the person who can salvage this nation from the abyss it has descended into; two, his overwhelming victory will restore calm and reason in the party, since those who want to do anything to destroy the party would have no choice but to accept the reality that Nana Addo is the most popular politician in Ghana today.

I wish all of you the best for the party.
By Kwesi Biney
 

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