NDC: Veep won’t concede pre-mature defeat
J.H. Mensah lauds NPP nomination – for Asutifi South
The Daily Graphic / The Chronicle
No balloting for run-off / It’s still ‘ASEE HO’
Women charge against JJ, IGP
Atta Mills to change team
Top Nkrumaists declare for Kufuor
NRP, PNC, GCPP, UGM are very insignificant – Tony Aidoo
Prof. Mills must withdraw
NDC: Veep won’t concede pre-mature defeat
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has stated that its presidential candidate, Professor J.E.A Mills, will not concede any pre-mature defeat.
A release issued on Wednesday and signed by Mr Vincent Asiseh, the party’s press secretary, said that since none of the presidential aspirants was able to attain the required 50 per cent plus one vote of the total votes cast last Thursday, the only logical and constitutional thing to do was a run-off to determine the winner.
The party has therefore described as “misguided”, calls by a section of the public to the NDC candidate to withdraw from the constitutional process to determine who leads the nation after President Rawlings.
The party stated that it is important to realise that the 15 billion cedis required by the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct the run-off is nothing compared to the need to build a vibrant and formidable democracy.
It reminded such people that it cost the nation three times the amount to issue photo ID cards to voters, adding that there was no need to make a fuss about the issue since the government had already agreed to provide the money.
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J.H. Mensah lauds NPP nomination – for Asutifi South
Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, MP for Sunyani East, has welcomed the nomination of Mrs Cecilia Gyan Amoah, wife of the late Prof. Philip Kofi Agyapong Amoah, as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate for Asutifi South Constituency.
“If her nomination is the recommendation of the constituency, I will be happy to endorse it, and we shall all work to secure her election”, he said.
He said Mrs Amoah’s nomination serves a better purpose for the party as it shall have more women in the party’s parliamentary team.
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No balloting for run-off / It’s still ‘ASEE HO’
The Daily Graphic and ‘The Chronicle’ report in their banner stories that the Electoral Commission would not conduct fresh ballot for placement on the ballot paper for the presidential slot run-off slated for December 28.
Consequently, the positions of the Presidential candidates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which are the only parties contesting the second round balloting, will be first and second respectively on the ballot paper.
Mr David Kanga, Deputy Chairman of EC in charge of operations, told Graphic that since the GCPP, which got the first sport on the ballot paper in the recent presidential slot will not be contesting in the run-off, the NDC automatically moves to the first position while the NPP settles for the second and bottom spot.
Talking to the Chronicle, Mr Henry W Okyne, Director of Public Affairs at the EC said the electoral body consider the second round of voting as a follow-up to the Presidential Election on December 7 that produced no winner, and that, the positions of the candidates won’t change.
Chronicle said that the NPP’s slogan, ‘Asee ho’ which caught on with some voters in last week’s elections, is expected to roar back to life, following the EC’s confirmation that the positions would not change in the second round.
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Women charge against JJ, IGP
The Chronicle in another front-page capture says the coalition of women groups, Sisters Keepers, have expressed outrage at the total inaction of the authorities over the serial murders and demanded immediate action on the matter.
The group which draws its membership from FIDA, the Ark Foundation, Abantu for Development, among others, argued that the issue of the gruesome murder of three women within the last four weeks and 29 over the last two years is a tragic issue that should be a political issue, because women constitute 53 per cent of the electorate which is enough to determine the next president of the country.
They wondered why women’s issues have always been treated with contempt and not given priority as others by the government, stressing that these murders, which started two years ago are still continuing without a single arrest.
“A party office was vandalised, and the IGP was given an ultimatum. Women who contribute to the growth of the economy and form 51 per cent of our population, 53 per cent of the electorate and produce 70 per cent of Ghana’s food crops are being murdered in this disgraceful manner, and the IGP cannot be given an ultimatum to do something about this one. Is our President a president for a particular party and not for all Ghanaians, especially women?” they wondered.
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Atta Mills to change team
The Presidential candidate of the NDC, Prof. Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, has sent signals indicating he will change certain members of his campaign team, according to a Guide story.
Speaking to Radio Ghana and GTV, Atta Mills conceded that his team may not have run the best campaign, and that their message may not have gone down too well with the electorate, hence his inability to score a first round victory as predicted earlier.
Political pundits speculate that J.A. Kufuor’s message of ‘Positive Change’ may have been more acceptable to the electorate, than Atta Mills’ multiple messages of ‘Peace, Experience and Unity’.
They said voters may not have been overly impressed with certain members of his team, and may have been especially put off by the President Rawlings style of campaign.
The analysts said what might have hurt Atta Mills more was the use to which the NDC put Alhaji Inusah, the defector from the NPP, in embarking on a campaign trail of a relentless bashing of his former party which could have soared the party’s popularity instead of diminishing it.
The Guide says it is not clear which members of the campaign team will disappear in the round-off days to December 28.
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Top Nkrumaists declare for Kufuor
Three top Nkrumaists, Mr Dan Lartey, the presidential candidate of the Great Consolidated Popular Party, Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Chairman of the CPP and Dr Kwesi Nduom, also of the CPP, have declared their support for Mr J.A. Kufuor in the December 28 presidential run-off, reports the Independent.
Mr Lartey and Mr Pratt had declared their support publicly on Joy FM and Peace FM respectively.
Mr Pratt added that the call by NDC’s flagbearer, Prof. Atta Mills, to all Nkrumaists join hands with his party is too late in the day and does not take into account the polarisation between all followers and genuine followers. Mr Pratt said he would personally campaign for Mr Kufuor.
Dr Nduom who told the Independent about his decision in an interview, also indicated that he has advised his supporters in the Kommenda Edina Eguafo Abirem Constituency to start the campaign for Kufuor.
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NRP, PNC, GCPP, UGM are very insignificant – Tony Aidoo
Less than 24 hours after the NPP had shaken the incumbent NDC with the results of the December 7 polls, Dr Tony Aidoo, Deputy Minster of Defence has described the other opposition parties as insignificant.
Dr Aidoo who had been reminded by the BBC of the presence of the other opposition parties, could not be sobered by the remarkable performance of the NPP and retorted: “The other parties had only six per cent or less of the total vote. They do not have any mobilising ideology. They do not have any programme. To me, they are very insignificant.
Dr Aidoo said there was no doubt about the NDC winning the second round elections. He did not concede the fact the NDC was defeated by the NPP and demanded a meaning of the word from the interviewer.
He said winning the electoral mandate is a decision of the electorate, and that they, according to the Constitutional regulations must give a party 50 per cent plus one vote to win.
“No political party that contested in the election that we have just concluded got that 50 per cent of the total votes plus one. And so as far as I am concerned, between us and the NPP, there have been no losers,” he said.
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Prof. Mills must withdraw
The Accra Mail says first round defeated NDC presidential candidate, Prof. J.E.A. Mills, instead of heeding to calls to withdraw from a presidential run-off that would cost the nation some 15 billion cedis, took refuge rather in the constitution, claiming that it would be unconstitutional for him to do so.
The same constitution is however unambiguous about any presidential candidate who wants to withdraw from the race at any stage, as stipulated in Article 63(3), (4) and (5).
The Article gives a leeway for an honourable retreat by Prof. Mills that would save his face, save Ghana billions of cedis that would go into more distressed sectors of the economy and write his name in the records as the man who put his country before his own personal ambitions and those of his mentors.
Neutral observers say left to the Professor alone, he would have long since withdrawn and congratulated Kufuor, but hardliners in the NDC would rather see Ghana burn than even contemplate such an honourable move.
The paper says with the Professor having a leeway, it is up to him alone, to take the biggest decision of his life to save the nation 15 billion cedis and possible mayhem by withdrawing from the run-off.
It says the saying that "it is not wise to bite the finger that feeds one" has entrapped the NDC should it turn to international donors that it snubbed during the photo ID card saga, for funding and is one reason why Mills must concede defeat.
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