The New Patriotic Party (NPP) congress has come and gone, the standards set by the organisers standing out as trail blazers for others to emulate.
In a commentary preceding the event, we did point out that being one of the two leading political parties in the country, the conduct of the internal elections would impact on the overall assessment of democracy in the country.
Without an iota of doubt, the congress has proven to be an important landmark in the history of democracy in the country.
Ghana has traversed another milestone in our journey in democracy by the conduct of the polls, and we can confidently pat each other’s back for the positive outcome. Hold on a bit. Perhaps we must wait and see the outcome of others when it is time for them to choose their officers at the national level.
We hope that others, when it comes to their turn to go to congress, will ensure that law enforcement officers deployed to maintain law and order, will have little to do.
It was a congress which although had divergent opinions about approaches to political ends, there were no chairs thrown at each other. It was opposite of what was  enacted when others assembled at UG, Legon and Koforidua for a similar exercise, and ended up attracting negative headlines and earning a bad name for local democracy.
Apart from leading the charge in suggesting reforms in the electoral system to IPAC meetings and the adoption of same, the NPP has through last Saturday’s congress, widened the gap between it and bad electoral practices.
Of course there are bound to be losers in all elections but this notwithstanding, those who lost must take the outcome in good faith and support the triumphant to move on with the political project of the party, which is about retaining power in the next elections.
Coming to the subject of policing, we are glad to state that it was without blemish. The IGP/Dr. George Akufo Dampare and his administration must be applauded for a job well executed. So tight was the security that any semblance of an incident would have been nipped in the bud.
As for the organisers, their beautiful conceptualisation and execution of the congress has captured the awe of millions of Ghanaians including those who were standing by, to cast negative headlines.
It is our hope that when the country goes to the polls, the lessons learnt from the NPP polls would be brought to bear on the process.
We congratulate the NPP especially, the congress organisers, for a job so wonderfully done. Ayekoo!