The Evening News / Ghana Palaver
Mills predicts 1st round victory / NDC on the path to victory
State of emergency on the economy if…
"Successful polls will bolster confidence of investors'
Unapproved routes sealed
Afari-Gyan: Ivorian experience won't happen here
Bereaved family sets Church ablaze
Why Kufour may win the election
Rawlings to 'vomit' 9 billion cedis
Ada under siege
The Evening News / Ghana Palaver
Mills predicts 1st round victory / NDC on the path to victory
The Evening News and the Ghana Palaver write on their front-pages, submissions by the Vice-President and Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. J. E. Atta Mills, at a rally to introduce the party's parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, in Accra.
Prof. Mills is quoted by the Evening News as saying that there is ample evidence to show across the length and breadth of the country that the NDC is going to win the December general elections with a convincing majority vote.
He called on party supporters to dispel doubts that the NDC is going to lose.
"Signs are on the wall that the party is going to win, on my tour to various parts of the country. It was on the lips of the people that the NDC has done a lot in terms of road infrastructure, provision of electricity and potable water and social services like quality health care delivery which they are satisfied with and are ready to vote the party back into power."
In its story, the Palaver says Prof. Mills intoned that the NDC is treading the path of victory because it is the best party with practical solutions to the country's problems.
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State of emergency on the economy if…
In another front-page story, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is reported as saying that it will declare a state of emergency on the economy immediately it assumes the presidency in January 2001.
The move, proposed by Ms Theresa Tagoe, MP for Ablekuma North at a rally in Accra, is to salvage and redeem the deplorable state of the economy, which has made things difficult for Ghanaians both for survival and business.
She said what Ghanaians are presently experiencing are all symptoms of mismanagement and lack of foresight by the NDC government, which has plunged the economy into crisis.
The NPP, she said, would take a critical review of the economy and identify areas of priority, which need immediate attention.
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"Successful polls will bolster confidence of investors'
Mr. Charles A Minor, an international management consultant, is quoted by the Daily Graphic as saying that the successful conduct of the December 7 elections would bolster the confidence of the international community and investors in the Ghanaian economy.
Mr. Minor, Management Development Director of African Management Services Company (AMSCO), an affiliation of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank said Ghana is now a beacon of hope in the West African sub-region and Ghanaians must make every effort to ensure a smooth transitional process.
Speaking in an interview with Graphic after opening a seminar on corporate governance in Accra on Tuesday, he noted that political stability is an important benchmark in making investment decisions and said the tremendous gains made in this direction since 1992 must be protected.
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Unapproved routes sealed
Construction Pioneers (CP), a road construction firm in the country, on Tuesday started tipping boulders on all unapproved routes and inter-sections on the Accra-Tema Motorway to mark the beginning of the closure of the routes.
CP has been given three days to undertake the work which involves the setting up of "Jersey Barriers" (heavy concrete mouldings) to halt the activities of drivers who have been using the routes either for entry, exit or to make U-turn.
The story indicated an estimated 22 unapproved routes and inter-sections along the Motorway.
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Afari-Gyan: Ivorian experience won't happen here
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC) Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has assured Ghanaians that what happened in Cote d'Ivoire where fugitive, General Robert Guei, dissolved the Electoral Commission, arrested its chairman and declared himself winner of the presidential election, cannot happen in Ghana, reports The Ghanaian Chronicle.
Dr Afari-Gyan is quoted as saying that the electoral system of the country makes it impossible for one to change the final result, stressing that any attempt at fiddling with the figures would be glaring and would therefore stand should he be arrested as in the Cote d'Ivoire experience.
Speaking in a radio interview at Takoradi in the Western Region, he said to ensure free and fair elections his outfit has handed over a copy of the voter's register to each of the political parties and they are expected to have representatives at all polling stations.
The arrangement, coupled with the counting and declaration of results at polling stations, he said, should give any serious political party his vote score by midnight after collating figures from the stations.
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Bereaved family sets Church ablaze
The Ghanaian Times reports that irate members of a bereaved family from Breman, near Kumasi, on Sunday stormed the Holy Temple of Christ Healing Church of Ghana at nearby Kronom and set the chapel, the mission house and other structures of the church ablaze.
They accused the founder and leader of the church, Rev. George Gafaah, 45, of administering a suspected poisonous concoction to their rich relative, Madam Elizabeth Takyi, 45, resulting in her death a day earlier.
A timely intervention of the police from Suame and the Buffalo Unit saved Rev. Gafaah from being lynched by a milling crowd.
The minister of the gospel is reported to be practising occultism and allegedly accused the family of bewitching the deceased and being responsible for woes plaguing her. Gafaah consequently lured her to his church under the pretext of giving her spiritual protection.
The lady had on October 22 complained of stomach ache and was administered with a concoction by Gafaah only to be later rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital when it turned severe and her kidneys were detected to have been destroyed. Elizabeth died six days later leading to the family riot.
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Why Kufour may win the election
The Weekly Insight writes that in spite of all the negative sides of Mr. J.A. Kufour, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) there are signs that he may surprise his critics and emerge victorious in the December elections.
Three main factors reportedly working in Mr. Kufour's favour are the disintegration of the National Democratic Congress, the internal cohesion of the NPP and the fact that the NPP has more resources than it has ever had.
The NPP, according to party sources, has in the last 12 months built a war chest of over 10 billion cedis with contributions still pouring in from home and abroad.
The Insight says although the NPP is not a direct beneficiary of the disintegration of the NDC, the weakening of the Rawlings /Mills apparatus ultimately serves the interest of Kufour and his party.
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Rawlings to 'vomit' 9 billion cedis
The Dispatch writes that as the ruling NDC contends with finding antidote to the country's economic malaise, the President is being called upon to make good his promise to cadres in Tamale last year that he personally has sourced 9 billion cedis to resettle them.
"The cadres are still waiting", a number of cadres interviewed last week had demanded.
The government also reportedly promised an even higher amount of 10 billion cedis to rehabilitate about 50,000 cadres in a statement attributed to Presidential Staffer on Progressive Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) and MP for Ledzokuku, Nii Adjei Boye-Sekan during a July cadre meeting at Tema near Accra.
The NDC government, according to the MP, had come to the realisation that majority of them preferred to work in the formal sector such as the Police Service and the Armed Forces but were without the requisite qualification.
The government, he said was putting in place a mechanism to enable them acquire skills and vocational training, for enhanced self-employment.
The cadres are reported as saying that the 9 billion cedis purse worked out to about 180,000 cedis per cadre. A cadre in a reaction told the paper, "we accepted the President's promise that he was really genuine. But it is over a year and nothing concrete has come up.
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Ada under siege
The Free Press reports in a banner story that the chiefs and people of Ada in the Greater Accra Region, have accused the government task force operating the Songhor Salt industry of failing to account for 3 billion cedis that was realised through sales.
The security members are said to have instead resorted to victimisation through the arrest of some chiefs and prominent citizens of the area, which is said to have received condemnation from the people. The people have described the behaviour as absurd, unconstitutional and barbaric.
Nene Kabu Abram Akuaku III and Dr K. B. Asante, presidents of the traditional council and Ga-Dangme Council, in a press conference in Accra, expressed shock and dismay at the arrest and detention of Nene Nakom IV, a chief, and two others.
They said the action of the police, at a time when they were expecting invitation for conflict resolution over the industry, is seen as a mark of desperation on the part of those behind the orders to ensure that they continue to milk dry the poor citizenry of their only source of livelihood.
They said the people of Ada have a case that needs hearing, claiming that since the take-over by Task Force from Vacuum Salt Products Ltd., and Star Chemical Ltd., over 303 billion cedis have been realised with nothing paid to the chiefs except for little handouts to the traditional council.
They refuted reports of agitation in the area and said the people of Ada are peaceful and need not be drawn into any mischievous political machinations.
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