Police are not aware of attacks
United opposition means nothing
Taxi to provide police clue to serial killers / We’re doing our best
NPP alleges errors in poll results
Ashanti records highest voter turnout
EC scales down cash requirement
I will not debate - Kufuor
NDC prepares for violence in run-off / NDC's strategies exposed
Stop intimidating NDC supporters - Ato Dadzie
Police are not aware of attacks
According to The Evening News banner story, The Police Service says it has not received any formal reports on the alleged brutalities being meted out to natives of the Volta Region and other ethnic groups residing in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions.
Inspector A.K. Arthur of the Police Public Relations Directorate stated that officials at the headquarters in Accra would crosscheck the rumour from the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regional Commanders of the Service to ascertain its veracity or otherwise.
He emphasised that the police would act immediately on its findings after the investigations. "As far as I know the police have not received any complaints of assaults of natives of the Volta Region, residing in other regions, but we will investigate the matter," he said.
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United opposition means nothing
Mr Ken Dzirasah, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament has cautioned supporters of the opposition parties not to be deceived by the pledge of support by their leaders to Mr Kufuor, the NPP flagbearer since that would not automatically translate into victory for him in the December 28 run-off.
Speaking in an interview with The Evening News in Accra, he said if official statistics showed that about 2.5 million eligible voters did not vote in the December 7 elections, then that should definitely be a crucial factor in the run-off.
He said what the opposition parties have currently done is marriage of convenience, which their supporters had already started protesting against.
He said the NDC flagbearer would emerge the winner in the December 28 run-off since the chances of the party are bright.
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Taxi to provide police clue to serial killers / We’re doing our best
The Ghanaian Times and the Daily Graphic carry front-page stories on Tuesday’s press conference by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Peter Nanfuri to address issues related to recent murder of women that has pushed the number of such deaths to 30 since 1997.
Times quotes the IGP as saying that a white and yellow taxi-cab, Hyundai Excel GR 5109, is believed by the police to hold the key to unravelling the mystery around the latest string of murders.
He however suspected that the vehicle might have been re-sprayed by now or the number plate might have been criminally changed.
The IGP renewed the Police Administration’s appeal to the public for vital information that would lead to the arrest of the serial killers of women in the Accra Metropolis.
He said the police had handed over the dockets of some cases that it had completed investigations on to the Attorney-General’s Department.
The Graphic also carries that the Police Administration stated during the conference that its inability to unravel the mystery surrounding the killings or the perpetrators behind it should not be misconstrued as a weakness or incompetence on their part.
He said the latest incident on the Spintex Road has compelled the police to broaden its scope of investigations to get to the bottom of the matter since it appears the matter is beyond the world of mere criminals.
In yet another capture on the paper’s front-page, the IGP Nanfuri stated that it would be defeatist and an act of cowardice for him or any top officer of the Police Administration to resign over the inability of the police to apprehend the brains behind the killing of women in the metropolis.
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NPP alleges errors in poll results
The Times in a banner story reports that the national campaign manager of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, on Tuesday said that it has detected some discrepancies and errors in the Presidential voting results published by the Electoral Commission (EC) in its provisional figures released on December 11, 2000.
Addressing a press conference in Accra to draw the EC’s attention to the errors computed by an independent computer consultant, Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said the investigations suggested that the data management system at the EC was of doubtful quality.
He said this was because the EC’s figures, which were not consistent at various stages in four regions for some presidential candidates, did not also tally with the totals given by the EC.
He said although the independent analysis did not change the final outcome of figures released by the EC suggesting a run-off, the discrepancies raised fundamental questions that needed to be addressed.
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Ashanti records highest voter turnout
The Graphic writes that the Ashanti Region recorded the highest voter turnout during the presidential and parliamentary elections with 64.01 per cent of the 1,976,959 registered voters, while the Volta Region recorded the lowest turnout of 58.2 per cent of the 963,568 registered voters.
According to figures made to the Ghana News Agency, the Central Region followed Ashanti with 63.8 per cent of the registered voter population of 870,876 and the Eastern Region 63.7 per cent of 1,187,573 registered voters.
The Northern Region, with a registered voter population of 910,911 recorded 62.2 per cent while the Upper East Region with a registered voter population of 480,894 recorded 60 per cent.
It also indicated that Upper West Region recorded 59.8 per cent of registered voter population of 303,264 while the Greater Accra, with a voter population of 1,845,869 recorded 58.8 per cent.
The Western Region recorded 58.6 per cent of a voter population of 1,076,778, followed by the Brong Ahafo Region, which recorded 58.4 per cent of a voter population of 1,041,920.
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EC scales down cash requirement
The Ghanaian Chronicle says information reaching it indicates that the Electoral Commission (EC) has revised downwards the cost of next week's presidential run-off from the initial cost of 15 billion cedis to 14 billion.
The initial amount was the estimated cost for the December 28 re-run of the presidential poll as announced by Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, the electoral body's chairman.
The decision to change the figures nine clear days before the election was after consultations with the government, which has agreed to provide two billion cedis for the re-run.
Six donor communities, excluding the World Bank, provided a total of 12 billion cedis to the cost of the presidential election.
Sources within the donor community said the United Nations Development Programme is co-ordinating the donor technical assistance to the EC.
Mr Henry Okine, Public Relations Officer of the EC, told the paper that his outfit was ready to conduct the election on December 28.
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I will not debate - Kufuor
A center-spread story of the Guide said the Presidential candidate of the NPP, Mr J.A. Kufuor, has stated that he will not debate Vice President and presidential candidate of the NDC, Prof. John Atta Mills.
Mr Kufuor who was speaking on Vibe FM, an Accra private radio station last Friday, emphasised that he will not debate with anybody for debating sake.
"Will debate determine the confidence of the people by just meeting somebody for 3 minutes, for what, it doesn't determine how one will rule a nation," he philosophically stated.
He explained that debate is just one small aspect of deciding one's wisdom but that the actual wisdom is how to govern people and implement policies, adding that it does not determine how one will rule a nation.
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NDC prepares for violence in run-off / NDC's strategies exposed
The two papers report the NDC pushing its desperate strategies to win the December 28 elections to ominous dimensions including what appears to be a preparation for any eventuality including war.
The Free Press says information reaching it, confirmed by a one paragraph invitation letter it chanced unto shows the Patriots Club of Ghana, an affiliate wing of the NDC, urgently requesting its branches in the ten regions to dispatch "100 strong patriots" each to its headquarters in Accra by Tuesday December 19, 2000 for a two-week unspecified training for an equally unexplained "national assignment".
"Without specifying the kind of training the members are to undergo or, for what purpose, the invitation letters were sent to Regional Ministers, District Chief Executives and all Regional Co-ordinating Councils of the club," according to the paper.
The Free Press says what makes the whole project mystifying if not ominous is that the invitation letters were sent only to NDC related organs, thus confirming the suspicion that the whole project is NDC sponsored.
On its part, The Dispatch mentions the NDC's adoption of 'Operation Ayele' to beat the NPP third time and 'Operation Submarine', in which many officials will operate on the quiet and try to convince opinion leaders in areas that the NDC lost during the December 7 elections.
Spearheading the team for the projects are Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Minister of Education, John Mahama, Minister for Communications, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, NDC Secretariat and Vincent Assiseh, the NDC Press Secretary.
Some officials of the party reportedly conceded the uneasy nature of the exercises but one was quite optimistic when he said, "we will give it our best shot and as underdogs, we will cause a surprise and spoil NPP's planned New Year celebrations."
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Stop intimidating NDC supporters - Ato Dadzie
The Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, Nana Ato Dadzie, is reported by the Ghana Palaver as assuring supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who, for fear of intimidation, could not vote during the December 7 elections that their safety is assured during the December 28 presidential run-off.
He said stringent security measures have been put in place to protect voters from intimidation and urged them to turn out in their numbers to vote for Professor John Atta Mills.
Nana Dadzie stated that Ghana is practicing a multiparty democracy, which enjoins people to belong to parties of their choice and cautioned those who want to force others to vote for a particular party to desist from the practice.
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