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To What Extent Did Biometric Register Contribute To NDC’s 2016 Election Defeat?

Feature Article To What Extent Did Biometric Register Contribute To NDCs 2016 Election Defeat?
OCT 20, 2017 LISTEN

When I was blissfully perusing through the seemingly bizarre story about the NDC’s biometric register, I thought I was dreaming. But I was not, I was wide awake. I found the story so outlandish, so to speak.

Well, I, for one, will never buy the sophistic and somewhat isolated thinker’s assertion that the NDC’s 2016 election defeat was largely due to the intricacies in their biometric register and a technical hitch to their results collation system.

Without being condescending on this occasion, I will venture to state that the NDC faithful are living in a denial. They have indeed lost touch with the reality.

Frankly speaking, the biometric register had nothing to do with the NDC’s 2016 humiliating election defeat.

But rather, discerning Ghanaians have undergone a carefully considered deliberation and have rightly seen the light. They are indeed fed-up with the gimmicks of the manipulating politicians.

Indeed, we do not have to look any further than the 2016 election results to acknowledge how Ghanaians have changed their voting behaviours.

You may believe it or not, but the fact remains that discerning Ghanaians have overcome their electoral benightedness and are ever ready to vote on issues that affect their lives, if the just gone Election is anything to go by.

It is absolutely true that in 2016, discerning Ghanaians reacted negatively to the apparent harsh economic conditions by clamouring and opting for a positive change.

It is, therefore, extremely unfortunate that the NDC loyalists would want us to believe that every single Ghanaian was oblivious to the happenings in the country prior to the 2016 election.

Let us however be true to ourselves, in as much as the biometric register may have negatively affected the NDC’s internal elections, it had nothing to do with their 2016 humiliating election loss.

In actual fact, there was no way discerning Ghanaians were going to vote NDC into office a third time, considering the rampant corruption and the unbelievable incompetence.

The fact however is: the diehard NDC supporters were living in a denial about the harsh economic conditions prior to the 2016 election.

Believe it or not, back then, the vast majority of Ghanaians incredibly struggled to make a living or eke an income, which was largely due to the dreadful errors in decision-making, the incompetence and the unbridled corruption which culminated in untold economic hardships.

But despite the conspicuous harsh socio-economic standards of living back then, the NDC apologists shamefully and ignobly kept badmouthing concerned citizens.

As a matter of fact, the NDC campaign team could not have convinced Ghanaians who were extremely unhappy about President Mahama’s largesse to Madam Akua Donkor of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) of two four wheel drive cars and a luxury bungalow (estimated to cost a staggering $470,000) for no work done.

Truly, no discerning Ghanaian was ever prepared to vote NDC back to power, when no meaningful efforts were put in place to retrieve the monies in the following scandalous corruption cases:

  • The dubious Embraer 190 aircrafts deal which prompted former President Mills to set up a Committee to investigate the then Vice President Mahama.

  • The $200 million bill we incurred on the unsuccessful STS housing deal which was spearheaded by the then Vice President John Dramani Mahama.

  • The bizarre GH800 million judgement debt payments over the last eight years.

  • The inexplicable $30 million judgement debt payment to Waterville which the Supreme Court of Ghana ruled as unconstitutional and ordered the NDC government to retrieve, but to no avail.

  • The dubious $25 million judgement debt payment to ISOFOTON, which the NDC government has failed to retrieve despite the Supreme Court’s order.

  • The scandal (create, loot and share) at the National Service Secretariat which cost Ghana millions of Ghana Cedis.

  • The SADA scandal which deprived the people of the Northern Region millions of Cedis meant for development.

  • The SUBA scandal which cost Ghana millions of Cedis meant for the improvement of the economy.

  • The GYEEDA corruption scandal which deprived the youth of Ghana millions of Cedis meant for the creation of jobs.

  • The amount of $250 million from the Euro bond which was meant for infrastructural development but lodged surreptitiously in an unauthorised bank account.

  • Inflated costs of infrastructural projects (the former Minister for Local Government, Collins Dauda raised concerns).

How would anyone expect the aggrieved Ghanaians to change their mind over the GH9.5 billion debt former President Kufuor left in 2009, and Mahama abysmally raised it to an incredible GH122.4 billion in just eight years?

I bet there was little the NDC 2016 electioneering campaign team could have done to convince unhappy Ghanaians to vote NDC again, when former President Mahama and his maladaptive government woefully shrunk Ghana’s GDP from $47 billion to $37 billion in five years.

How could anyone blame the harmless biometric register for NDC’s humiliating election defeat, when Ex-President Mahama dreadfully dragged an economic growth of around 14 per cent in 2011 to a nauseating 3.5 per cent as of December 2016?

Truth be told, the NDC loyalists must accept the fact that discerning Ghanaians could not have forgotten the terrible errors in judgement which culminated in economic hardships amid the unbridled business crippling ‘dumsor’.

In sum, the NDC faithful should get a grip and accept the fact that the vast majority of aggrieved Ghanaians voted against the NDC in the 2016 election, largely due to the incompetence, the unbridle corruption and the unresolved dumsor which culminated in harsh economic conditions.

K. Badu, UK.
[email protected] ; please visit me at: alljoycom.wordpress.com

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