As we inch towards another crucial elections in December, all the political parties and independent candidates are reaching out to the electorate for their mandate to take over from President Akufo-Addo on January 7, 2025.
While some of the political parties, especially the candidates of the NPP and the NDC have hit the ground running, the presence of others can be felt on billboards and posters, rather unfortunately, the political parties claiming their roots from the Nkrumahist tradition are reorganising for the polls.
Even between the NDC and the NPP, the focus is not the same. Whereas the sitting Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who doubles as the presidential candidate of the NPP is connecting with all sections of the society, John Mahama of the NDC, besides the difficulty in explaining the unattractive 24-hour economy, is fighting the Electoral Commission (EC) for perceived plans to rig the elections for the NPP and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for announcing plans to host presidential debates without consultations.
What is very loud in all these protestations from the NDC’s boardrooms is their claim that the EC and the IEA are aligned to the ruling NPP government to rig the elections in favour of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. We think these ugly noises are the consequences of the lack of the NDC’s understanding of the electoral process.
To the NDC, any process to strengthen our democratic governance that would not inure to their electoral fortunes must not be tolerated. The NDC’s interpretation of a rigged election is when the NDC loses that election like in the case of the 2020 elections, leading to John Mahama’s petition to the Supreme Court which was shot down for lack of merit.
In the lexicon of the NDC, they can only lose an election when the process is rigged. That notwithstanding, the explanations by the eminent past EC Chairperson, Kwadwo Afari Gyan that election results cannot be manipulated at the EC’s strong room and advised political parties that elections are won at the polling stations is applicable here.
And because such admonitions sound like discord in the ears of the NDC, their leaders, in this case John Mahama, still believes the Jean Mensa-led EC is in cahoots with the NPP to rig the 2024 elections in December.
Ms. Jean Mensa, Chairperson of the EC, when she appeared before Parliament last Friday, assured Ghanaians that the EC cannot rig elections in favour of any political party. The NDC Minority was very vociferous when the EC Chairperson appeared in Parliament, but in so far as Jean Mensa debunked the perception of vote buying and vote rigging, the NDC, its leaders and supporters continue to dream of shadows of another electoral defeat.
The NDC has perfected the act of rather “rigging” elections in the bar of public opinion.
Former President John Mahama has not disowned his position that Ghanaians have short memories and for which reason, Koku Anyidoho in 2016 told Ghanaians in the aftermath of that year’s elections that, “John Mahama was in a comfortable lead”. It rather turned out that John Mahama was well whipped by the then candidate, Nana Akufo- Addo.
And again, in the 2020 polls, John Mahama himself came out to tell Ghanaians that the NDC had won majority seats in Parliament and called on the NDC supporters to start celebrating the victory.
Haruna Iddrisu, a Member of Parliament on the side of the NDC, said about the 2020 elections, “overwhelming evidence makes it impossible for us to accept this spurious and hurried conclusion.”
In spite of the overwhelming evidence that President Akufo-Addo had been voted back to power, the NDC pursued its grievances in the court, but in a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition. The 2024 election will not be won in the bar of public opinion but by the sovereign will of the electorate.
That is why at this stage, it is prudent for those wishing to lead us to present their policies and programmes to us. Politics is a contest of ideas, and so the electorate looks forward to the policy interventions that will take Ghana to the Promised Land. That is why it beats our imagination that the NDC is whining about this year’s presidential debates, seeking alibi in perceived bias of the IEA against the party.