NDC most corrupt party in Ghana’s history

The Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, has warned Ghanaians not to vote for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) because it is the most corrupt political party in the history of Ghana.

“There is no doubt about that, and Ghanaians should not give them a chance to rule Ghana again. All what the NDC, as a political party, thinks about is how to develop tactics and plans that they can use to steal from the ordinary Ghanaian taxpayers’ pocket,” Mr Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC, said at a press conference in Sunyani on Sunday.

“Any time the NDC is yearning for power, it is not borne out of national interest, but for political and personal interest. This brief history clearly reveals the track record between the two political parties. The NDC has always had the track record of stealing and looting from state coffers since 1979 till date,” he said, and added: “The NDC party, even in opposition, is still exhibiting incompetence in its dealings, and its leaders lack integrity, ideas and vision.”

NDC AGAINST THE COMPILATION OF NEW VOTERS REGISTER

According to Mr Baffoe, the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Aseidu Nketia, on his recent tour of the Bono Region, noted certain reasons for which the party is against the compilation of a new voter register. Their reasons include among others, the exclusion of the Ghanaian birth certificate and the existing voter identity card, inclusion of the Ghana Card as a requirement for registration, and acquiring a voter’s ID, which, according to the NDC, will disenfranchise many people, and the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) as an excuse.

The Regional Chairman noted: “It is important to acknowledge that it is not within the domain of the regional secretariat of the party to speak for [the] NIA and the Electoral Commission, however, it is within the domain and realm of the regional secretariat of the party to clear all ambiguities and misconceptions peddled by the NDC during their visit to the region.”

Mr Baffoe pointed out that the NDC must understand the fact that the NPP, as a government which has put over 1.3 million children in school through Free SHS, and has employed over 100,000 graduates and more, does not need an election to be rigged in its favour.

“A government that puts the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian first, whether it is in protecting the money of millions of depositors, or absorbing the cost of electricity and water of 30 million Ghanaians, to ease the sufferings of the people when there is a crisis, such a government does not need an election to be rigged in its favour,” he said.

He said: “The extraordinary good works of His Excellency President Akufo-Addo and the government will vindicate the party at the December polls, for that matter, it is absolute absurdity for an individual or political party to think that the government or party needs [the] election to be rigged in its favour.”

BLOATED REGISTER

Mr Baffoe observed that “a bloated voters’ register, on its own, does not produce a fraudulent election result, it is, however, the ability of criminal elements to weaponise the voters’ register, by transferring the fake names or phantom registrants to actual votes, that makes for a stolen election.”

“In this regard, Madam Charlotte Osei, former EC boss, in her response to her impeachment petition, noted that, “Mr Amadu Sulley (then in charge of Operations) persistently instructed officials to carry out illegal vote transfers on the Voter Management System in clear breach of the law and operational policies of the Commission.”

Mr Baffoe alleged that Amadu Suley is now the advisor to the NDC on election matters. “It is important to note that the NPP knew before the 2016 elections that the voters’ register was over-bloated. The party made representations to international donors to assist in replacing the over-bloated register,” he said.

According to the Regional Chairman, through analytical reviews, the NPP was able to convince the international donors that there was a prima facie case for a new voters’ register to replace the bloated one, but the international donors requested substantive evidence to support the claim.

“Since substantive evidence could only be obtained through a Comma Separated Value (CSV) version of the voters’ register, which the EC repeatedly and persistently refused to produce, it was, therefore, impossible to substantiate the allegations made through the analytical reviews. Thus, the efforts to get a new voters’ register failed in 2016,” he said.

Again, he noted, if the Electoral Commission is to accept the existing voter ID cards as proof of citizenship, there is the likelihood that non-Ghanaians, who had previously managed to enter Ghana’s electoral roll using the NHIS cards, could use that to legitimise their voting status as Ghanaians.

“So, even though the Electoral Commission said it deleted about 56,000 names of those who used the NHIS cards to register, there are still some names in there, because in the defence of the Electoral Commission, in the matter of Abu Ramadan (No: 2), the E.C. noted that millions of citizens used the NHIS card to acquire the voters ID card,” he said.

Mr Baffoe said: “It is important to note that 56,000 cannot be equated to millions of Ghanaians, as alluded to by the Electoral Commission in their defence.”

Mr Baffoe said the case of the NPP is that the current voter register is not fit for purpose (the 2020 general elections) and that the NDC must stop its useless and baseless fight, because the NPP will every day reject a defective register, and the Electoral Commission will also not be stopped from performing its constitutional function.

He stated that the war drums being sounded by former president Mahama and his NDC cohorts is nothing, but a sign of defeat. “They feel the dwarf wind and the clouds of defeat all around them, and, therefore, the unnecessary attacks on the Electoral Commission,” he said.

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