Ernest Yaw Anim
In the aftermath of the decisive New Patriotic Party (NPP) triumph in the Kumawu by-election, the predictable ranting of ‘know it all’ radio talkers was in full flight yesterday and beyond, their stock-in-trade being jaundiced analysis.
One of them, an assign of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was especially trying abortively to douse the victory with analysis which was anything but convincing and logical.
Be it as it may, the Kumawu by-election, a precursor of the 2024 polls, exposed the moral fault-lines of the NDC as the opposition after going onto the grounds with dirty tricks up their sleeves failed to impress anybody including themselves.
They lavished plenty money on the electorate and supported one of the independent candidates to roughen the grounds in a desperate bid to cause shock to the NPP, but that did not happen.
Going into battle with your opponents spawning dirty tricks they are known for, landslide victories of this magnitude are worthy of celebration.
Our lead headline for the Kumawu triumph was “Anim Wins Kumawu By-election By Landslide”.
One of the persons who sought to reduce the importance of the Kumawu political activity and by implication ridiculing our headline was Kwesi Pratt Jnr.
While we would not like to engage in exchange of polemics with colleagues of the inky fraternity, we nonetheless take exception to the useless effort at rubbishing our headline on grounds of veracity.
We stand by our headline of a landslide win for the NPP, which is a reality in the true sense of the expression.
A party which wins in an election by 70 percent after mammoth machinations by their opponents have not only registered a landslide but reduced to nothingness the pre-election analysis by so-called political know-alls.
Another fallacy worthy of rubbishing is the low turnout of voters at Kumawu which they want to use to create the impression of discontent. Of course by-elections have always been characterised by reduced voters.
Provided the acceptable threshold has been traversed, which is the case in the Kumawu polls, the issue of low turnout for the purposes of analysis according to Kwesi Pratt Jnr and his ilk are balderdash.
With two independent candidates prominent in the by-election, the registered score for the winner is landslide.
For us however, and indeed many others, the ranting on radio stations in especially Accra have little or no bearing on the thoughts of the people who decide how they want to vote and not according to the jacks of all subjects but masters of none.
Tickling themselves into laughing and erroneously thinking they have done well in an electoral duel such as the Kumawu polls is simply filling airtime on radio, pure and simple.
Seventy percent win as against 17 and they think there is nothing of political significance in this should be rubbished with contempt.
When propaganda is etched deeply in the DNA of political activists/journalists, it is to be expected such jaundiced premises and conclusions.
They predicted a shock for the NPP and now they are rather jolted by the landslide they are living in denial of.