Abigi, Kwadwo
6 January 2009
opinion
The NPP also did horrible by making Parliament less governable and taking advantage of the strong executive powers granted by the Constitution to the President to bulldoze its way through Parliament. According to some constitutional experts, Parliament became less democratic under the NPP era. No wonder, the late Rt. Honourable Ala Adjetey, who was supported by the NDC, was forced out of the Speaker's chair to give way to a more malleable person who was ready to sing to the tune of the President.
The Executive also eclipsed the Council of State, rendering it spineless, toothless and ineffective. So far, some of the key recommendations made by African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to reform governance and better promote human rights under the Kufour administration have not been heeded to. Yet, the Kufour administration prided itself, as one of its achievements, as being the first African State to submit to the APRM. Also, the follow-up recommendations by AfriMAP have been shoved aside.
Among others, it was proposed that the Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs be abolished, as well as decoupling of the office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice. One can also talk about the recommendations of the National Reconciliation Commission. Most of these recommendations have not been responded to. Yet, rather, the NPP tried to stoke the flames of disunity by referring to past human rights abuses under the PNDC era and linking that to the NDC.
In addition, NPP's lack of application of its internal democratic structures, which led to imposition of parliamentary candidates or placing of stumbling blocks in the way of those who were less favoured by the bosses, was another factor responsible for its dismal performance.
Voter apathy?
According to statistics released by the Electoral Commission, about 65% of registered voters did vote. For that reason, there have been cries about voter apathy. This might be true to some extent, particularly among NPP supporters who decided not to as a protest against the imposition of candidates on them and for the general dissatisfaction with NPP's performance in office. Quite apart from this, I will attribute the low turn-out to the efforts of groups and individuals to prevent illegally registered persons from voting.
We should take into account the fact that civil society organisations (CSOs), particularly the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI), decried the high levels of illegal (under-aged, multiple and alien) registration. It was estimated that about 2 million people were illegally registered or not qualified to vote. Therefore the CFI and other CSOs and individuals put up a spirited fight to ensure the cleaning up of the voters' register. This exercise was successful to some appreciable extent but it didn't help to reduce the numbers drastically.
CSOs, however, did not give up. In collaboration with bodies such as Conference of Headmasters of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), the Ghana Education Service (GES), the NCCE, CHRAJ, etc serious efforts were made to ensure that minors and other "illegals" would not attempt to vote. I believe this collaborative effort helped to prevent a significant number of illegally registered voters from turning up to vote. Plus, the EC strategy of preventing double voting was effective in turning some people away. All these contributed to reducing election fraud. Therefore it would be wrong to conclude that voter apathy was simply to blame.
NDC bad strategies
Having said all this, my prediction did not place NDC as being able to stage such a dramatic come-back. I was rather expecting the CPP to perform better under a seemingly resurgent Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and rather poach votes from the NPP. This is due to the fact that the NDC campaign strategy was not very well coordinated. Atta-Mills at certain points became preachy and invoked too much reliance on God into his campaign message.
The NDC could not articulate a sharp message that could counter the NPP strategy of linking the NDC to the PNDC. Sometimes the message was wishy-washy and unfocused. It seemed to say that NPP did not achieve anything at all. That is not correct. Such a message seemed to send jitters to the people as well as the international community that an NDC regime would discontinue some of the policies of the NPP. But the Constitution even does not allow that as it emphasises the need for continuation of policies where possible.
By lumping all NPP policies together as a failure, the NDC failed to identify and hammer on some of the key failures of the NPP government and relate them to how they have contributed to impoverishing the ordinary person in simple language for the people to relate to. For example, how about down the cost of the presidential awards and costing how much this money could have constructed so many classrooms, bought so many textbooks, built a feeder road to cart goods from the hinterland, and graphically presenting this on the television screens?
The NDC also did not stress its good points, such as having contributed to peace in the country by ensuring a smooth transition to the NPP and some of the key social policy initiatives it initiated and were continued by the NPP.
Conclusion As noted earlier, this weakness on the part of NDC enabled them to lose the presidential to the NPP. If it should do its homework well it is likely to win the run-off. If for nothing at all, history is on its side. Among others, the NDC should isolate Rawlings from their campaign. The man is more of a liability than an asset. The ability of Atta-Mills to dissociate himself from him from the campaign, and for example, choosing and 'outdooring' his Vice-presidential candidate without the blessing of Rawlings was a powerful message he sent out that he was indeed his own man.
It is alright for Rawlings to campaign for the party but it has to be discreet among the NDC strongholds. This way, he could play a vital role in shoring up the NDC support base and at the same time not overshadow Atta Mills and give credence to the wrongly-held view that he (Rawlings) would return to power and influence under an NDC regime. Rawlings' AFRC/PNDC human rights record is sour and unpalatable and any hint that we might have a return to those days, which seems well-nigh impossible though, is likely to be capitalised on by the NPP. To me Rawlings is passé in terms of his ability to dictate and influence affairs in the country.
The NDC needs to identify three to five key missteps and terribly bad policies executed by the NPP, highlight them graphically and talk about how they have contributed to the difficulties the country finds itself in today. It should then bring out ideas and policies which will be implemented to counter these negative policies and outline how it will benefit the people. At the same time it should highlight achievements made by Atta Mills during his tenure as Veep. Respect for the rule of law as against the practice of 'rule by law' should be emphasised.
Strengthening of constitutional and statutory bodies to ensure checks and balances and particularly deal with corruption is key. Provision of affordable water, electricity and feeder roads, the setting up of rural-agro-based industries should be stressed. NDC has an advantage of wooing the middle class and by talking about policy measures that will expand and strengthen that class, as opposed to the NPP policy of creating an upper and lower class and weakening the creation of a middle class. It can also come up with ideas to strengthen the Council of State and make it more effective and more representative.
I would even propose that it should embrace members of the National House of Chiefs. The lack of implementation of many of the recommendations of the National Reconciliation Commission is one gaping hole that it can exploit by strongly emphasise the point of implementing its recommendations as well as the APRM report. Parliament remains weakened as an effective oversight, legislative and deliberative body. This is another weakness that the NDC could exploit by coming up with succinct policies on how to make Parliament work better and become a true epitome of democratic governance in the country.
Furthermore, it should come up with concrete steps to deal with the environmental tragedy faced by mining communities. Finally, it should talk of bringing justice to the door steps of the people by highlighting on improving alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms and dealing with judicial corruption. Above all, complacency should be eschewed.
All said and done, whoever wins the 2008 elections should realise that Ghana's democracy has come of age. This is, in my opinion, is not due to the fact that the elections were violence-free and acclaimed to be free and fair. Rather, it is due to the fact that Ghanaians have now become politically discernible and savvy. Any time I went around the countryside and saw signs which read like "No light, no vote," "No water, no vote," I would smile and doff off my hat for the people, as it makes me feel that they realise sovereignty indeed resides in them and they cannot be taken for granted. Go Ghana!
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
