PARTY UNITY TO BE TESTED (Front page) 15-01-10

Story: Kofi Yeboah

THE unity and strength of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) will come under test as the party holds its first post-election victory congress since the 2008 polls in Tamale today.
The fate of the NDC, in a congress described by some political analysts as a make-or-break affair, lies in the hands of about 2,000 delegates who will elect national executive officers to plot another electoral victory in 2012.
The congress comes amidst allegations of vote buying and bribery levelled against some prominent members of the party and strenuous efforts by both the Rawlings and the Mills factions to establish their dominance in the party's hierarchy.
It is with such anxiety that hundreds of NDC supporters are trooping to Tamale for the congress this weekend.
The recent development of factionalism, rancour and allegations of vote buying in the party have inspired fears that Tamale may be a replica of Koforidua where the NDC national delegates congress in 2005 was characterised by violence in which some prominent members of the party were assaulted.
That incident eventually led to the breakaway of some members, most of whom later formed the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP).
Some political analysts believe the Tamale congress has a lot of implications for the fortunes of the NDC in the next general election.
“I'm expecting them to come out tops in all these because if they fail, that will be a recipe for defeat in 2012,” Mr Kingsley Adjei, a lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Coast, told the Daily Graphic.
However, the leadership of the NDC has dismissed such fears, expressing optimism that the party would emerge from Tamale stronger and more united.
At a press briefing in Accra last Wednesday, the outgoing National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, said, “The NDC has grown beyond factionalism and personalities.”
One of his two deputies, Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, also dismissed the assertion that the party was divided, saying they all belonged to one camp — the Rawlings camp.
These dismissals notwithstanding, political watchers such as Mr Adjei believe the factionalism within the NDC is real and the earlier the party deals with it, the better it will be for its chances in Election 2012.
According to him, former President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, should have stayed above any faction in the party because they were persons to look up to when anything went wrong in the party.
He said the recent election of the party's youth and women's organisers, both of whom were considered as coming from the Mills camp, lent credence to the perception that the popularity of former President Rawlings in the NDC was waning.
Mr Adjei said given those circumstances, if the candidates from the Rawlings camp did not succeed at the Tamale congress, there would be apathy in the party and that “will be disastrous for the party in Election 2012”.
He said the charisma of former President Rawlings in the electoral fortunes of the NDC could never be wished away.
Ahead of the Tamale congress, the NDC has come under intense criticism over allegations of vote buying and bribery which have raised eyebrows among some members.
Following the party's national youth congress in Sunyani recently, one of the contestants for the national youth organiser position, Ras Mubarak, alleged that the election had been fraught with bribery and vote buying.
Mobile phones and money were alleged to have been used to influence the delegates in the voting.
Some NDC members have condemned the allegations and called for investigations to ascertain the truth, adding that vote buying and bribery had the tendency to undermine internal party democracy.
However, according to Mr Afriyie-Ankrah, the allegations were nothing new, especially after people had contested and lost elections.
Sharing some thoughts on the issue, Mr Adjei said such tendencies were dangerous to the country's democracy because they led to putting square pegs in round holes.
The vote buying and bribery allegations reinforce the power struggle within the NDC, but one other challenge that confronts the party is how a national executive composed of persons from the Rawlings and the Mills factions or individuals with deep-seated difference will function effectively.
Apart from the popular media fracas between Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and Mr Ato Ahwoi, the recent altercation between Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the NDC General Secretary, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, over the role of the 31st December Women's Movement in the NDC provide the basis for such concerns.
Prior to the 2000 elections, the NDC experienced similar party wrangling and suffered badly with the breakaway of some members who later formed the National Reform Party (NRP).
In the subsequent election, the party lost power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), sending it into opposition for the next eight years.
Zakaria Alhassan reports from Tamale that the excitement over the congress is gradually heating up in the metropolis with the expected arrival of delegates yesterday.
Over 2,500 delegates and observers across the country and beyond are estimated to mass up in the metropolis for the eighth delegates conference of the party that is being held in Tamale for the first time.
The venue for the congress, the WAEC Hall, is being prepared for the assembly. Canopies have been erected by Zoomlion, a waste management organisation, at the Tamale Sports Stadium to serve as the congress village and market.
At the moment, almost all hotels and guests houses have been fully booked. Food vendors and traders, particularly dealers in smocks, are all stockpiling to cash in on the thousands of visitors who will throng the metropolis for the congress.
While most of the contestants for the various positions in the party are yet to arrive, as they intensify their campaigns in the regions, their posters can be spotted at various parts of the metropolis.
According to the Northern Regional Secretary of the NDC, Alhaji Imoro Issifu Alhassan, “the Tamale congress will be the best the party has ever organised anywhere in the country”.
He said most of the logistics were to arrive from Accra yesterday and gave the assurance that “everything is, indeed, on course and we look forward to hosting a very successful congress”.
On security, the Northern Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr Angwubutoge Awuni, indicated that the police were firmly on the ground and collaborating with “our headquarters in Accra for the necessary logistics for the provision of adequate security before, during and after the congress”.
The commander, who did not give figures, said enough police personnel would be mobilised to ensure peace and order during the congress.
Mr Awuni, however, called for co-operation and support from delegates and other stakeholders, “so that together we can have a smooth congress”.
A vice-chairman of the party in the region, Sofo Azorka, urged the youth in the area to live above reproach and go about their campaigns for the various candidates peacefully.
“Only accredited persons will be allowed into the main venue. We will, therefore, not tolerate any behaviour that will have the tendency of marring the beauty of this august gathering of our party leadership and invited guests,” he warned.
A food vendor, Hajia Muhammadu Ruhia, said, “The congress will surely be a success and we in the hospitality industry will be better off at the end of the day.”
She expressed appreciation to the leadership of the NDC for choosing to host the congress in Tamale for the first time in the northern part of the country.
A retired public servant, Alhaji Hussein Abubakar, entreated residents of the metropolis to seize the opportunity the congress would offer to showcase its rich cultural heritage and hospitality to the rest of the country and the world.
He appealed to party stalwarts, delegates and supporters to always use dialogue in arriving at consensus, since democracy was about accommodating different shades of opinion.