[ 2011-04-20 ]

Nana Akomea

Vote of no confident in Mills - Akomea
The Communication Director of the New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, believes that the mere
fact that former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman
Rawlings has opened up to contest President Atta
Mills for the flagbearership position of the
ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is a
clear sign of no confidence in the President and
his administration.

"It means that inside the NDC itself, there is
significant numbers who do not believe that the
President is delivering on the ‘Better Ghana'
agenda," he said.

He was of the conviction that "the vote of no
confidence is so big that it is manifesting in a
direct challenge of the President".

Nana Akomea, who is also the sitting Member of
Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi South, was speaking
with DAILY GUIDE about unfolding events in the
ruling party which has virtually divided the NDC
into two interest groups, the Mills and the Konadu
camps.

He has asked Ghanaians to take a cue from this
vote of no confidence in the President by none,
but his own party members to show him and the NDC
red card come December 2012 when they go to the
polls to elect a President.

In spite of this, he thinks that under the current
circumstance, President Mills stands a better
chance than the wife of the NDC's founder since in
his opinion "the odds are really stack against
her."

This, according to him, was because the electoral
arrangement that the NDC had did not give much
room for none office holders at the grassroots
level (foot soldiers) to participate in it.

For this reason, he said the President could
manipulate the voting pattern by making new
appointments for his favourites to go and vote for
him on congress day.

Though there is an existing clause in the
Constitution of the NDC which makes provision for
each constituency to submit a list of 10 voters to
elect a flag-bearer, Nana Akomea believed the 10
would invariably be composed from the constituency
office holders or the executives since each and
every one of them would want to go and vote.

As it is, he said, "It is confined mainly to
office holders, constituency executives, regional
executives, ministers of state, MMDCEs, council of
elders and so on" and "it is dominated by machine
politics; office holders, the status quo...that's
what dominates the NDC's electoral process".

He believes that if Konadu indeed wanted to win
the impending primaries, what she and her
strategists should have done was for them to have
pushed for the introduction of reforms in the
Electoral College like the NPP did to allow the
grassroots to also participate.

As it stands now, the Communications Director for
the NPP foresees NDC foot-soldiers embarking on a
series of agitations across the constituencies to
demand voting rights since they constitute the
support base of the Rawlingses.

He harbours the fear that this could further lead
to more turmoil in the already-boiling NDC.

Mrs. Rawlings and her supporters however remain
unperturbed by some of these analogies since they
believe they have done enough to secure her the
bid.

Source - Daily Guide

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