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VOA: NPP Pull Out Of Tain
Ghana's Ruling Party Pulls Out of Special Election After Failing to Restrain Electoral Commission
Friday's special election in Tain Constituency, Ghana's Brong Ahafo region is expected to determine which of the two presidential candidates would succeed outgoing President John Kufuor. This comes after the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) failed in its bid to legally restrain the electoral commission from declaring the winner of Friday's special election and subsequently the next president of Ghana.
The NPP also served notice to the electoral commission that it would not be participating in the Tain Constituency election, citing security concerns, which it claimed would significantly undermine the transparency of the election. But the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is encouraging its partisans to come out and vote. Bernard Morna is a leading member of the opposition People's National Convention, which stayed neutral during the December 28 run-off election. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that by citing security concerns, the ruling NPP was acting irresponsible.
"I can tell you that the security acted so professional to my amazement that all of us were asked to come down from our vehicles, including the former President (Jerry Rawlings). The vehicles were searched thoroughly and we were personally searched so as to ensure that nobody went into Tain with any weaponry or with ballot papers," Morna noted.
He said there were incidents, which indicated voter irregularities, but that those were professionally dealt with by the security agents there.
"Indeed at the point of our entry (into Tain), we saw the former general secretary of the NPP whose car was searched and at that point we noticed that thumb printed ballot papers for Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufu-Addo the NPP flag bearer were found and they were taken out. And we are also informed that when the current president got to Wenchi (in the Brong Ahafo region), the Wenchi chief told him that the people of Tain were going to vote overwhelmingly for the NDC. And so the president should go back to Accra to prepare to hand over power to an NDC elected president. So, I am also encouraged by the professional manner the security agents are conducting themselves," he said.
Morna described as irresponsible claims by NPP partisans of security intimidation.
"I hold that to be a very preposterous and strange position coming from a party and a government. The ruling party that controls the security of this nation turns around to say the security if the nation is bad then that should be the reason for which the people should vote them out because they have shown gross incompetence and gross incapability of managing the security of the nation that you can't even assure the people of Ghana that the security of something they can rely on," Morna pointed out.
He said it was unfortunate that the ruling party was complaining about the security situation when it is in total control of the country's security apparatus.
"Let us not forget that the president is the head of the National Security Council and the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. The vice president is the chairman of the Police Head Council and so in spite of all these they are telling us that the security of the nation is bad tells of the gross incompetence and incapability of this government. And that is the more reason why they should be voted out quickly," he said.
Morna said the situation in the Tain Constituency is calm ahead of Friday's election contrary to claims by the ruling party.
"It couldn't have been for security reasons that they (NPP) went to court. It wasn't for security reasons that Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufu-Addo did a press conference to assure the people that they were going to hold a campaign and that he was going to come. So, clearly the constituency is very safe. They can only spew out these because they know that on the ground they are not popular and that the wind of change that is coming will sweep them away," Morna noted.
He described as unfortunate the cloud of instability the ruling party was trying to portray in the Tain constituency.
"So at the end of the day they can only come and create perception, especially to the rest of the world that something bad was happening. We have all campaigned in this country and they contain the security of this country and at no point in time did we complain about security difficulties. Is it because they are meeting their waterloo today that they are claiming that security is not good for them? I still insist that if it is security that they are complaining about then it indicates that this government is highly incompetent to manage the affairs of this nation," he said.
The electoral commission rescheduled Fridaay's election after it citied difficulties in getting election materials to the constituency in the December 28 election run-off.
Friday's election is between Nana Akufu-Addo of the ruling NPP and Professor John Atta-Mills of the main opposition NDC. This comes after no candidate garner the over 50 percent minimum votes required to win the December seventh general election. Meanwhile the opposition NDC is ahead after the election run-off with 50.13 percent, while the ruling party trails with 49.87 percent.
The spokesman for the ruling NPP, Arthur Kennedy said Thursday the situation in the western district of Tain was not conducive to hold a fair vote. He claimed partisans of the NPP were being intimidated. However there was no indication from the electoral commission whether it was going to stop Friday's vote because of the NPP claims.
Some political analysts say it would be difficult for the ruling party to win Friday's election in Tain's constituency because the opposition won the constituency by over 50 percent of the votes.
Meanwhile, some Ghanaians are calling on the presidential candidate of the ruling NPP to concede defeat. This was further echoed by the only independent presidential candidate at the December seven general election. Kwesi Amoafo Yeboah has called on Nana Akufo-Addo to concede defeat in the interest of peace. He urged the NPP to be gracious in defeat adding that the majority of Ghanaians have shown that they prefer to have the presidential candidate of the main opposition NDC Professor John Atta-Mills Mills as their next president.
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NPP withdraws legal suits
The New Patriotic Party has withdrawn all legal suits from the courts relating to the 2008 presidential elections.
The party filed a writ in court on Thursday in an attempt to secure an injunction to restrain the Electoral Commission from declaring the winner after the Tain election.
When that failed, the party through its lawyer, Atta Akyea sought an interlocutory injunction on the Tain election.
Following the development, a leading member of the NPP, Mr. B. J. da Rocha said the legal battle was unnecessary.
He said stalling the process was completely unwarranted.
The President also issued a statement asking all stakeholders in the elections to yield to the decision of the EC.
He said any outstanding issues could be resolved using due process stressing the need to meet the constitutional requirement of handing over on January 7.
In the face of these, Mr. Atta Akyea told Joy News his client, the NPP’s National Chairman Mr. Peter Mac Manu had instructed him to withdraw the cases from court.
The lawyer said they could reactive the cases if the need arose.
He expects the EC to look into allegations of irregularities in the Volta Region raised by the NPP.
Story by Malik Abass Daabu
Akufo-Addo To Concede?
... appeals to supporters for calm
The presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo has appealed to supporters of the party to remain calm and not engage in violence.
He told the supporters who had gathered at the party’s headquarters that election was not a matter of life or death and that there was no need for any violence.
The supporters were there to protest a possible concession following reports that leaders of the party were meeting to take a final decision to concede defeat.
They reportedly booed party bigwigs who came into the meetings, saying they will not subscribe to any decision to concede.
Curiously however, some of the supporters were of the view that Nana Akufo-Addo should concede.
Amisdts the protests, Nana Akufo-Addo appeared from the meeting and addressed the crowd.
He told them that the election was not over yet and thanked them for their astuteness and loyalty to the party.
“You are true supporters of the NPP,” he said, adding that they should not vandalise any property or attack any persons since that was not what the party was known for.
The presidential hopeful, whose chances appear very bleak now, appealed to the NDC to advise their supporters against perpetrating violence in the country.
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Da Rocha: Leave the EC to do their job
A member of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party has condemned attempts by the party to stall the electoral process.
According to B.J Da Rocha the action taken by the party against the EC is neither in the interest of the nation nor the credibility of the NPP.
Party Chairman Peter Mac Manu, and counsel Atta Akyia had earlier filed two writs to put an injunction on the Tain election and to stop the EC chairman from declaring the results of the December 28 runoff.
Mr. Da Rocha said the "action is wrong and must be abandoned."
He told Joy News on Friday, the constitution must be allowed to play out without any interference.
He intimated there are provisions within the constitution which allows for the party to seek redress of all their grievances, adding the process must be allowed to go on.
Even though he is a member of the National Executive Council of the party, Mr. Da Rocha said he is not aware of the legal action taken by the party.
His comments is in agreement with the New Year’s message sent by President JA kufuor on Friday asking the two political parties contesting the runoff to respect the authority of the EC.
Story by Nathan Gadugah
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EU deploys observers in Tain
 | The European Union Election Observation Mission Ghana is to deploy 26 observers to the Tain constituency in Brong-Ahafo Region to observe voting on January 2, 2009.
This was contained in a statement issued in Accra by Mathias Eick, Press Officer, of the Mission. Picture (c) ghana-net.com & EventPicture.co.uk |
Source: ghanaweb-news.com