VR BRUTALITIES UNDERMINE OUR DEMOCRACY - AKUFO-ADDO (P.1) 01-01-09

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said allegations of brutalities against some NPP activists in the Volta Region during last Sunday’s presidential run-off undermines the sanctity of the country’s fledgling democracy.
He said the NPP was in the process of providing the Electoral Commission (EC) with evidence on those allegations, expressing the hope that the commission would act firmly on them.
Addressing a news conference at his East Legon residence in Accra yesterday, Nana Akufo-Addo expressed confidence that the EC would uphold the party’s evidence, and that would change the tide of the elections in his favour.
Asked what the party would do if its expectations of the EC were not met or whether it was contemplating a legal action to seek fairness and justice, the NPP flag bearer responded; “We will cross the bridge when we get there”.
The news conference was the first public reaction by Nana Akufo Addo on the presidential run-off barely 24 hours after the chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, had officially announced the results.
It was attended by his running mate, Dr Mamudu Bawumiah, the Director of the NPP Campaign Team, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I. C. Quaye, and the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Prof Mike Ocquaye.
Out of 229 constituencies whose results were declared by the EC, Nana Akufo-Addo is trailing Prof John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) by 23,055 votes, having obtained 4,478,411 votes, representing 49.87 per cent of the total valid votes cast as against 4,501,456 votes, representing 50.13 per cent obtained by Prof Mills.
The electorate in the Tain Constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region will go to the polls on Friday, January 2, 2009, in an outstanding election that would determine the ultimate winner of the presidency.
The NPP has already filed a petition at the EC, alleging that some of its polling agents in about 10 constituencies in the Volta Region were chased out by NDC supporters, thus making it impossible for the party to monitor the election process and certify the results in those constituencies thereafter.
The party further alleged that some of its activists were brutalised by NDC supporters, citing Dr Ohene, a psychiatrist, who was severely beaten and abandoned in a critical condition.
Nana Akufo-Addo condemned the alleged brutalities and irregularities which characterised the presidential run-off in the Volta Region, making it difficult for the party’s agents to verify the results in many constituencies in the region.
“I don’t think that is the purpose of elections in our country. The purpose of elections in our country is to have a process based on fairness”, he remarked.
The protest notwithstanding, the NPP, on the advice of the EC, has the burden of producing evidence of its concerns, since “the name of the game”, as indicated by Dr Afari-Gyan, “is evidence”.
Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP had a box of evidence to present and expressed confidence in the EC to discharge its mandate to the satisfaction of all Ghanaians.
“We have to have elections in Ghana conducted according to our laws, which bind all of us”, he said.
Nana Akufo-Addo expressed concern about alleged brutalities that were being unleashed on NPP supporters by NDC activists, as well as the destruction of his billboards in various parts of the country after the elections, and called for a stop to those acts.