Mario Balotelli's double life...

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The bitter family feud that haunts the £29m Manchester City target

Inside Thomas and Rose Barwuah’s third-floor council flat above a row of shops in Bagnolo Mella, on the outskirts of Brescia in northern Italy, photographs of their family adorn the walls.

There are pictures of their four children — Abigail, 22, Mario, 19, Enoch, 17, and Angel, 11. But it is Mario who takes centre stage. There are photos of him as a baby and then a toddler growing up in the Sicilian city of Palermo, kicking a football, in a suit at a family party and play-fighting with brother Enoch as Rose looks on.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}But Mario is no longer a Barwuah. He has taken the surname of his adopted family, Balotelli. The toddler has grown up into an Inter Milan striker and Champions League winner valued at around £29million.

The player they call ‘Super Mario’ claims his natural parents abandoned him when he was two years old. The grainy images in the Barwuahs’ humble flat in Bagnolo Mella, a sleepy town of terracotta buildings, haphazard cobbled streets and a population of just 13,000, are therefore the only connection they have with their eldest son.

Mr Barwuah picks up a picture of a three-year-old Mario holding a football. It was taken at a friend’s home in Vicenza, a 90-minute drive from Bagnolo Mella.

{sidebar id=12 align=right}‘Mario had spent hours playing football in the rain,’ said Mr Barwuah. ‘When the boys came in they were soaked but they were laughing and joking despite being wet. My friend said to Mario, “You really are Super Mario”. It’s the name we gave him.’

Mr Barwuah — a ‘poor metal worker’, as he puts it — is a proud man. But the strain on his face is obvious when he says Balotelli has only invited him to one Inter match in four years, the 2-1 Champions League win over Chelsea in February. Even then it was a second-hand invitation and a match in which Balotelli only played the last 32 minutes.

‘He turned up one day with four tickets and he gave them to his brother, Enoch,’ said Mr Barwuah. ‘I asked if I could come and watch and he said that Enoch had the tickets and he could do what he wanted with them.

‘He has never remembered us. Not a birthday or Christmas, nothing. He is not the same boy I knew when he was younger — always laughing and smiling. He was trouble but in a good way.’

Trouble, it seems, has followed Mario Balotelli throughout his turbulent 19-year life.

Born to Ghanaian immigrants Rose and Thomas on August 12, 1990, in Palermo, the future athlete was in and out of hospital as a baby. Mr Barwuah was forced to find work away from home and shuttled back and forth every weekend on a 12-hour overnight train. Mrs Barwuah was left at home with two young children — Abigail and Mario. Life was hard, to say the least.

Mr Barwuah said: ‘There were complications with Mario’s intestines and he was in a bad way. The doctors were worried that he would not survive and we even had him baptised in hospital in case he died.

‘For a year we were frantic with worry that he would not live. He was our first-born son and we were so proud when he was born, but we were left facing the prospect he might die.’

Mario’s condition improved by the spring of 1992 and the family moved to Brescia, a wealthy industrial city with a rich vein of factories and industries looking for workers.

At first they lived in a cramped studio flat with another African family before asking social services for help, pointing out Mario had recently recovered from an operation.

Social workers suggested Mario should be fostered. They proposed Francesco and Silvio Balotelli, who already had two sons and a daughter of their own.

The Balotellis, a white Italian family, lived in a large house in Concesio, an affluent town six miles north of Brescia. They could offer two-year-old Mario a lifestyle of which Mr Barwuah and his wife could only dream.

Mr Barwuah said: ‘At first we were not sure but we decided it was probably best for Mario. We saw him every week and we all got on really well.

‘We thought that at some point, once things had sorted out, Mario would come back to us. But instead, every time we tried to get him back, the Balotellis kept extending the foster time.’

Mr Barwuah said the family initially agreed to a one-year foster placement, which was then extended by a further 12 months. But their eldest son gradually slipped further and further away from them.

‘We couldn’t afford lawyers to fight for us, so Mario grew more and more distant,’ he said.

‘He would come and visit and play with his brothers and sisters but he just didn’t seem to have any time for us, his mother and father.

‘We wanted him back for more than 10 years but, every time we tried, the courts blocked it and as the years passed he became colder towards us. The Balotellis know people and are influential and we could do nothing.’

Balotelli was never officially adopted but made a conscious decision to turn his back on his Ghanaian heritage. He took the surname of his adopted parents and represented Italy’s Under 21 side.

Perhaps it was the teenager’s way of surviving in the racially charged cauldron of northern Italy, where he was regarded as an outsider.

As his foster mother has said: ‘He was born and raised in Italy but had to suffer the humiliation and hardships of being considered a foreigner.’

In 2008, on his 18th birthday, Balotelli gained Italian citizenship and an Italian identification card — at a ceremony at Concesio’s city hall to which the Barwuahs were not invited.

‘We didn’t know anything about that until we saw it on the news,’ said Mr Barwuah. ‘I didn’t even know he had taken the surname Balotelli. I thought he would still have our surname.’

It was also in 2008 that Balotelli claimed during a television interview that his birth parents had abandoned him in a hospital. The footballer had by then found fame at Inter Milan and claimed the Barwuahs were only interested in him for his money.

‘If I didn’t become Mario Balotelli then Mr and Mrs Barwuah would not have cared about me for anything,’ he said.

The accusation is deeply painful for Balotelli’s biological father, but Mr Barwuah’s patience is running out. His response is passionate and exasperated. He knows there is little chance of change now.

Mr Barwuah said: ‘Mario was convinced we had abandoned him in a hospital but that’s just not true. That is the Balotelli family putting something into his head and it really hurts.

‘We have always loved Mario but he has changed. It’s the Balotellis — they have made him turn against us.

‘How can he say we just want to know him for his money? It’s not true. We don’t want any money. We are Christians.

‘Do you know what he has started saying now? That we beat him as a child. It’s a lie. We never touched him. We would never beat him. We gave him all the love we could.

‘We have done nothing wrong. We want more than anything to have our son back but now I think it’s too late.’Mr Barwuah said he saw Mario last month and the striker told him he would be moving to Manchester. But there will be no family visits to England this season.

Mr Barwuah turns to those family snaps again, much-loved pictures that have been perused thousands of times.

‘Like any father, I wish him well. I was so proud when he joined Inter and I am still proud of him,’ he said.

‘I don’t want anything from him. I just want us to be how we were.

‘We did not leave Mario. Why would we have these pictures of us together?’

The boy born with a ball at his feet

HIS team pose in V-necked yellow football shirts on an Astroturf pitch. A proud supporter behind the camera captures the moment for the family album.

Some of the boys are smiling, or casually draping their arms around their team-mates. But it is the boy with the ball at his feet who draws the eye.

Mario Balotelli’s is the only black face in shot, yet something else sets the future Inter Milan striker apart from his peers. Attitude. The young footballer scowls into the lens, resting an elbow nonchalantly on his knee.

He is a player who has always stood out — in demeanour and ability — both at nine and 19.

Walter Salvioni spotted Balotelli when he was 15 in the junior ranks of third division Italian side AC Lumezzane. Within minutes, the coach was convinced the teenager had the talent to make his senior squad.

The 47-year-old said: ‘I was watching the juniors train and saw Mario on the pitch — after just five minutes I knew I had to have him in the first squad. He was incredible. His touch was fantastic.

‘I went to the junior coach and said, “I’m taking that lad for the first team”. I didn’t know he was only 15 until the coach said, “You can’t, he’s too young”.’

The club’s chairman and the league decided Balotelli could play if Lumezzane got a doctor’s certificate to say he was fit. ‘Within 24 hours he was with us,’ said Salvioni.

‘He spent a day training with the first team and then he was on the coach with us for the match in Genoa.

‘They were up near the top and we were third from bottom, but we ended up winning 1-0. Mario came on for the last 30 minutes and won the corner from which we scored the winner.’

That was in 2005. Balotelli soon outgrew the club, earning an ultimately unsuccessful trial with Barcelona before joining Inter Milan in 2006.

Salvioni said: ‘Mario is an all-round talented player. He can beat his opponents for pace and skill and he is very physical. The few months he was with me, I was very impressed with him.’

But the prodigiously talented youngster could sometimes irritate Salvioni. ‘He was always rushing away after training and wouldn’t stay for any tactics,’ said the coach.

‘I confronted him. He smiled and said, “I have to go home to study”. In the end, he confessed he was going to play five-a-side with his friends.’

But the boy Salvioni knew was not the trouble-maker who is talked about today. He was arrogant, but just wanted to play football.

‘He was always very polite,’ said Salvioni. ‘When he isn’t picked he gets angry because he knows he is good enough to play. I think that’s what has made him go to Manchester City. He told me a few times he got on really well with (Roberto) Mancini, and he will play him.

‘What Mario really wants is to be picked for the Italian national team. That is his dream.’

Laura Williamson and Nick Pisa in Brescia

Source: Dailymail/UK

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Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

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Augusto Pinochet Ugarte

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (born 1915) led the military movement of 1973 that toppled the elected Chilean government. An army general, he proceeded to govern in an authoritarian manner while attempting to rebuild the economy and permanently alter Chile's political system.

Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was born in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso on November 15, 1915. From his early years he aspired to a military career. Because of his small stature Pinochet was rejected twice by the National Military Academy before he matriculated at the Escuela Militar's four year officer training course in Santiago. He graduated in 1936 and was promoted to second lieutenant in 1938. He married Maria Lucia Hiriart and had three daughters and two sons.

During his early professional career Pinochet distinguished himself as a specialist in military geography and geopolitics. His 1968 book Geopolitica (Geopolitics) went through several editions. He also stood out as a student in the Infantry School, in the War Academy (staff school), and in other advanced courses. He held several staff and command posts during these years, posts which provided him with numerous contacts with other officers in the army, air force, navy, and carabineros (national police). Pinochet served on the Chilean military mission in Washington, D.C. in 1956. He taught at the Military School, at the War Academy, and at Ecuador's national war college in the 1950s and 1960s. It was during these early military years that he developed the ideals that guided his military career: patriotism, public service and respect for authority.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Early in his career, Pinochet was not interested in the political debates that dominated civilian society. A cousin said "his ideological orientation was an enigma. If he had any, he had not demonstrated publicly." By 1970, the year Salvador Allende Gossens was elected to the presidency, Pinochet had been promoted to division general—the highest rank in the Chilean army. In 1971 he became commandant of the Santiago garrison, one of the most sensitive and influential army assignments owing to the size of the garrison and to its location in the capital city. By this time Pinochet was firmly convinced that political demagoguery and Marxism were disruptive, hypocritical, and incompatible with, in his words, "the moral principles that should uphold society. … ." He traced his hostility to Marxism to events of the late 1930s, when Marxists participated vociferously in government, and to the Cold War years when the Chilean Communist Party was briefly outlawed. He also became skeptical of the ability of Chile's democratic system to withstand Marxism.

The 1970 presidential election confirmed his deep suspicions, for it gave power to the Marxist Allende despite the fact that he was a minority candidate. As garrison commandant Pinochet was an eyewitness to the social, economic, and political turbulence accompanying the Allende administration's efforts to turn Chile toward socialism through the control of national institutions. Outwardly he seemed to remain loyal to the legitimately elected government. When the army commander-in-chief, General Carlos Prats Gonzalez, became interior minister during a serious trucking strike of late 1972, Pinochet became acting commander-in-chief. He held this position again on the eve of the September 11, 1973 putsch.

On that day the armed forces seized power. Allende was killed in the presidential palace. Pinochet claimed that Allende committed suicide. That was refuted by Allende's widow and others who claim that Allende was murdered by Pinochet's troops. Pinochet became president of the Junta of Government, a body composed of military commanders-in-chief. A year later he became president of the Republic of Chile. His term of office was formally extended later through the adoption of a constitution giving him an eight-year term (1981-1989). Allende's loyalists tried to maintain resistance, but it proved costly. Over 1500 lives were lost by the end of the day. Fearful of internal resistance, the junta declared itself in a state of internal war. The U.S. CIA was instrumental in providing the junta with The White Book, a manual for executing a successful coup and caused hundreds to be beaten and tortured by the army and police.

From late 1973 until late 1976 the country was in an economic depression, the aftermath of Allende's policies and the economic pressures that had been applied by both foreigners and Chileans between 1970 and 1973. This was also a period of harsh authoritarian rule. Inflation was gradually reduced in the mid-1970s, and by 1978 Chileans, especially those of the middle and upper sectors, were talking of an "economic miracle" based on free enterprise, foreign loans, and "denationalization" of the economy. Pinochet's popularity peaked in 1978 when a plebiscite confirmed his leadership and policies—although a growing opposition denied the validity of the vote. In the early 1980s Chile suffered from the world recession, and the government resorted to stricter controls of the press, the exile of some dissidents, curfews, and repression characteristic of the early years of Pinochet's rule. At the same time he oversaw a shift in economic policy that revived the role of the state, which he and his supporters had blamed for Chile's misfortunes prior to 1973.

The supporters of Pinochet liked his role as Chile's strongman, the one figure capable of controlling the armed forces and the symbol of anti-Marxism. But he also became the figure toward whom a growing opposition (church leaders, labor, politicians, human rights advocates, leftists) directed its energies. The United States and other foreign governments were cautious in relations with his government. Through this period he maintained his resolute anti-Communism and showed an uncanny ability to survive politically in a country marked by unsolved economic and social problems. Pinochet was able to do this because of his own abilities, but also because of the strength of discipline in the military, the inability of opposition leaders to agree on policy, and the fear of many Chileans that alternatives would be worse than his authoritarianism.

These factors became subjects for increasing debate within the government, throughout Chile, and in the world press in 1983 when opposition leaders organized mass demonstrations against the regime's economic, political, and social programs. Beginning in May of that year miners, students, workers, and dissident political leaders took to the streets to register their discontent. Pinochet used armed force to quell the demonstrations, then began talks aimed at political compromise. When talks stalled he again used strong-arm tactics, claiming as usual that politicians and Marxists were to blame for Chile's problems.

In 1986 Pinochet survived an attempted assassination with only minor injuries. But the international outcry against his alleged violations of human rights continued to grow louder. The new constitution that had been seven years in the making was ratified by plebiscite in 1980. Even though it was approved, the election was declared a fraud. The constitution called for Pinochet to serve another eight years. This time actually permitted the opposition party to mount a successful campaign to remove him from office. The U.S. Congress financed $2 million worth of media consultants, poll judges and a parallel vote count to ensure a somewhat fair election. On October 5, 1989, 55% of the Chilean people voted to remove Pinochet from office. He was able to retain power until free elections installed a new president, Patricio Alwyn on March 5, 1990. Although he abdicated his title as president, Pinochet remained on as commander in chief of the army. After stepping down as president, Pinochet devoted himself to modernizing and computerizing his beloved army. Even at 80, he still saw himself as a force within Chilean society, very much in charge of the armed forces until his constitutionally forced retirement in March 1998.

Further Reading

Pinochet's own version of his role in government can be found in his The Crucial Day (1982). Frederick M. Nunn's The Military in Chilean History (1976) provides information on the military and political background to Pinochet's rise to power. Critical of the military and Pinochet, and sympathetic to his predecessor, are Robinson Rojas Sandford, The Murder of Allende and the End of the Chilean Way to Socialism (1975), and Ian Roxborough, Phil O'Brien, and Jackie Roddick, Chile: The State and Revolution (1977). Robert Moss' Chile's Marxist Experiment (1973) is favorable to Pinochet. Pinochet: the Politics of Power 1988 and A Nation of Enemies: Chile under Pinochet assess the situation since the coup.

"Augusto Pinochet Ugarte." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved May 23, 2012 from Source: Encyclopedia of World Biography | 2004 | Copyright

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Queen Elizabeth II

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Queen Elizabeth II

Athough born a princess, Queen Elizabeth was not originally in direct line to the throne. Had Edward VIII not abdicated in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936, his younger brother George Elizabeth's father would not have been crowned King, thus making the young princess heir presumptive.

The first child of the Duke and Duchess Of York, Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, and christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the chapel at Buckingham Palace. Educated at home with her younger sister Princess Margaret, she later went on to serve during World War II as a subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she reached the rank of Junior Commander.

In 1947, she married a handsome young naval officer, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a distant cousin she met when she was just 13 and the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria. Their first child, Prince Charles, was born in 1948 and his sister Princess Anne came along two years later.

When her father's illness forced him to abandon a proposed visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1952, the Princess, accompanied by Prince Philip, undertook the journey in his place. On February 6, while in Kenya on the first stage of her trip, she received the news of King George VI's death and her own accession to the throne.

The coronation took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, and was broadcast on radio around the world and - at the young Queen's request - on television, bringing the splendour of the event to hundreds of thousands of people in a way never before thought possible. When the Queen's youngest sons, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, were born in 1960 and 1964 respectively, they were the first children to be born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria.

The Queen has experienced the marriage break-ups of three of her four offspring, and the demise of Charles and Andrew's relationships, combined with a major fire at Windsor Castle, led her to describe 1992 as an annus horribilis in her Christmas speech for that year. Recent years may have been turbulent ones for the royal family, but there is no doubt that its titular head has helped uphold the traditional image of the monarchy while contributing significantly to the creation of a modern role for it.

The British monarch maintains close contact with the prime minister, with whom she has a weekly audience when she is in London, and acts as host to visiting heads of state. In the course of her reign she has visited nearly every county in the realm, and as her 80th birthday celebrations in 2006 proved, the energetic monarch shows no sign of slowing down.

Source:hellomagazine.com/profiles/queen-elizabeth-ii

Profile: Queen Elizabeth

As the Public Record Office releases more documents concerning the abdication of King Edward VIII, BBC News Online looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth - later to become Queen Mother - in her role as Queen Consort.

By Bob Chaundy, BBC News Profiles Unit

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon twice rejected proposals of marriage from King George V's second son Bertie because she was frightened of the restrictions that being a member of the Royal Family would place on her life.

Eventually, though, she was persuaded to accept.

But had she any inkling that she would end up as the Queen Consort, she may not have been talked into marrying. Had she not, the nature of the monarchy might have been very different.

For when Elizabeth and Bertie tied the knot in 1923, neither had any reason to believe they would become King and Queen.

She was the first "commoner" to enter the Royal Family since Henry VIII's last wife.

But she wasn't exactly common. Her father was fined for failing to register her birth in time. He'd been out shooting grouse.

He was the Earl of Strathmore, an hereditary peer whose family seat was at Glamis Castle in Scotland.

The family turned Glamis into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers during World War I and the young Elizabeth would help nurse them.

Her own brother, Fergus, died at the Battle of Loos.

With the war over, Elizabeth threw herself into London's social scene.

She loved partying and gained a reputation as a good dancer. Her bonhomie and gregariousness never left her; neither did some of the values of the Edwardian age in which she was steeped.

Bombshell

Once married, the Duke and Duchess of York, as they became, led relatively sedentary lives with their two young daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, until the abdication turned everything upside down.

When her brother-in-law David, now the uncrowned Edward VIII, was deliberating between Mrs Simpson and the throne, Elizabeth personally pleaded with him to put the nation before love.

She was concerned that her husband was not temperamentally suited to be King.

Bertie was notoriously shy and diffident, and had a pronounced stammer.

When Edward chose Mrs Simpson, Bertie broke down and "sobbed like a child".

Elizabeth berated Edward for his "shameful dereliction of duty".

She never forgave Edward and Mrs Simpson who became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after the abdication.

In her view, Edward had let the monarchy down. Her sense of duty, imbued in her from an early age, was offended.

Feud

Elizabeth, who was deeply religious, was also offended by the thought of Edward marrying a divorcee.

She regarded Mrs Simpson as a sleazy social climber whom she famously referred to in a letter as "the lowest of the low".

Elizabeth maintained a life-long feud with the Duchess of Windsor, engineering a wholesale clear-out of her friends from Court and ensuring that the duchess was denied the title of Her Royal Highness.

At the heart of her animosity was her firm belief that Wallis's behaviour had placed an intolerable strain upon her husband, contributing to his early death at 56.

Even at the Duke of Windsor's funeral in 1972, Elizabeth remained stony-faced, though the two did exchange words briefly. After the Coronation, Elizabeth took steps for her husband to attend a speech therapist to help cure his stammer, a radical move at the time.

With her able support, he rose to the occasion. The standing of the monarchy, dented badly by the upheavals of the abdication, was restored during World War II.

Dignity

By refusing to leave the country, and by repeatedly visiting the bombed out areas of London and elsewhere during the Blitz, the royal couple were a huge boost to morale.

Widowed at 51, Elizabeth continued to carry out public duties in support of her daughter, the current Queen, for another half a century.

She took pleasure in going out and meeting the people, and gave the monarchy a family image that still holds today.

She was also a great traditionalist who held back plans to modernise the monarchy.

But, for many people, she embodied the great British virtues of family and dignity, laced with the odd eccentricity and an endearing sense of humour.

Source: BBC, 29 January 2003

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Brief Biography: J.J. Rawlings

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Brief Biography: J.J. Rawlings

His Excellency the Former President of Ghana, Flt Lt (rtd) Jerry John Rawlings was born on the June 22nd, 1947 in Accra and was twice the head of state of Ghana.

His first political appearance on the Ghanaian scene was on May 15, 1979 when an unsuccessful coup d'état he led resulted in his arrest, imprisonment, and a death sentence. But before he could be executed, his friends in the Ghana military led by Junior Officers and the ranks overthrew the then military government of General Fred Akuffo in a coup on June 4, 1979.

The Junior Officers and the ranks set Rawlings free from prison, and installed him as head of the new government - the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).The AFRC handed over power to Dr. Hilla Limann who won the popular vote in the election to establish the Third Republic. Less than two years later, Dr. Limann's civilian and constitutional government was overthrown again by Jerry Rawlings on December 31, 1981. He then installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime.

After two terms in office, barred by the constitution from standing in any election, he anointed his vice-president John Atta-Mills as his choice to replace him as President. Ghanaians rejected his choice in the 2000 election by voting for the opposition NPP's candidate, John Kufuor.

He is a product of Achimota School, and married to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and has four children: three girls and a boy. He is the joint recipient of the 1993 World Hunger Award.

Military Career

In March, 1968, he was posted to Takoradi in the Western Region to continue his studies. He graduated in January 1969, and was commissioned a Pilot Officer, winning the coveted "Speed Bird Trophy" as the best cadet in flying and airmanship. He earned the rank of Flight Lieutenant (Flt. Lt.) in April 1978.During his service with the Ghanaian Air Force, Rawlings perceived a deterioration of discipline and morale, reflecting the corruption of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) at that time. As promotion brought him into contact with the privileged classes and their social values, his view of the injustices in society hardened. He was thus regarded with some unease by the SMC. He read widely and discussed social and political ideas with a growing circle of like-minded friends and colleagues.

On May 28, 1979, Rawlings, together with six others who were arrested earlier, appeared before a General Court Martial in Accra, charged with leading a mutiny of junior officers and enlisted men of the Ghanaian Armed Forces on May 15, 1979. There was strong public reaction, especially after his statement had been read in court, explaining the social injustices that had prompted him to act. The ranks of the Armed Forces, in particular, expressed deep sympathy with his stated aims.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Military Coup

When he was scheduled for another court appearance on 4 June 1979, Rawlings was sprung from custody. With the support of both the military and civilians, he led a coup that ousted the Supreme Military Council from office and brought the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) to power.The AFRC, under the chairmanship of Rawlings, carried out a much wider "house-cleaning exercise" aimed at purging the armed forces and society at large of corruption and graft as well as restoring a sense of moral responsibility and accountability in public life.

On 24th September 1979, the AFRC handed over power to a civilian government led by the People's National Party (PNP), under President Hilla Limann.On 31st December 1981, a Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), composed of both civilian and military members, was established with Rawlings as Chairman. In his second tenure in power, Rawlings' policies became more centrist, and he began to advocate free-market reforms.

However, despite the country's economic success, the Ghanaian government was criticized both at home and abroad for committing numerous abuses of human rights.In the early 1990s, the economy of Ghana was still not performing as well as it had in the early 1970s, on the other hand, the basic needs of the citizens were being met, many of them by domestic products, and the economy showed steady improvement with guidance from the International Monetary Fund.

Rawlings's reputation on foreign policy received a boost when he acted as a key figure in a mediated peace settlement between factions in nearby Liberia, a nation burdened by five years of civil war.

Democratic President

Citizens began demanding a more democratic form of government as the 1990s progressed. Rawlings answered this demand by forming a National Commission for Democracy (NCD), empowered to hold regional debates and formulate some suggestions for a transition to multi-party democracy. Although opposition groups complained that the NCD was too closely associated with the PNDC, the commission continued its work through 1991. In March of that year the NCD released a report recommending the election of an executive president, the establishment of a national assembly, and the creation of a prime minister post.

The PNDC accepted the report, and the following year Rawlings legalized political parties--with the provision that none could use names that had been used before--and set a timetable for presidential elections.When these presidential elections were held in 1992, Rawlings stood as the candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the successor party to the PNDC. Although his opponents were given access to television and newspaper coverage and to the freedom of the press had been lifted--no single candidate could match the popularity of the sitting head of state. Election returns on November 3, 1992, revealed that Rawlings had won 58.3 percent of the vote, for a landslide victory. Foreign observers declared the voting to be "free and fair."

Almost immediately, the leaders of the country's opposition parties claimed that the presidential election was not fair, and that widespread abuses had occurred. The leaders encouraged their followers to boycott subsequent parliamentary elections, with the result being that NDC candidates won 189 of 200 seats in the new parliament. Rawlings was therefore accorded a four-year term backed by an elected assembly of supporters for his platform. Answering questions of polling place irregularities, he promised to initiate a new voter registration program to be completed in time for elections in 1996.

Source:jjrawlings.info/about.html

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