Kosi Dede Damns Multiparty Democracy; Calls For One Party State

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Category: Politics

Created on Sunday, 06 May 2012 00:00

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Kosi Dede Damns Multiparty Democracy; Calls For One Party State

A leading member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) Kosi Dede says Ghana will be better off becoming a one party state.

According to him, the multi-party democracy being practiced by Ghana currently is dividing the country along ethnic and party lines, which does not augur well for the unity of the country.

Speaking on Radio XYZ 93.1 FM’s current affairs programme, The Analyst, on Saturday, Mr. Dede said the unity of the country is at stake if the current political system is not reviewed.

“Does democracy necessarily mean multiparty democracy? Look at the ethnic tensions that are beginning to brew here in Ghana. These are some the things the CPP foresaw many years ago.”

He averred that democracy can still thrive in a single party system; a system, he believes would reduce the acrimony that has plagued Ghana’s political scene in recent years.

“If multiparty democracy is going to lead to the disintegration of this country, would that be a plus or a minus?” he asked.

Mr. Dede said the use of tribal sentiments for political gains in the current multiparty system is the bane of many African countries and Ghana should not allow such a phenomenon to drive the country to the brink of anarchy.

Source: Radioxyz

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EC Records 8,000 Multiple Registrations; Ashanti Region Tops

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Friday, 04 May 2012 00:00

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EC Records 8,000 Multiple Registrations; Ashanti Region Tops

The Electoral Commission has detected over 8,000 double registrations in the ongoing Biometric Voters’ Registration Exercise with the highest number emerging from the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The fourth phase of the exercise which is expected to end on Saturday, May 5, has seen over 10.5 million people registering within the first three phases.

These figures were released by the Electoral Commission, which has been hailed by some think-tanks who say it proves that the Biometric System would curb double voting in the upcoming elections or reduce it drastically.

In an interview with Citi News, the acting Director of Public Affairs at the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry broke down the figures, which named the Ashanti region as the highest spot for multiple registration followed by the Brong Ahafo region.

He said: “As at Monday, 30th April, we had detected a total of 8,121 double registrations and these were done by 2,864 individuals which means that some of these individuals may have registered three times, four times and probably more.

“The figures cut across some of the regions, in Western region we had 225 individuals who have done multiple registrations, in the Central region we had 318 individuals who have done double registration, in Greater Accra 335, in the Volta region 326, in the Eastern region we had 254 people.

“In the Ashanti region we had 424 people who had done multiple registrations, in the Brong Ahafo 411 had done multiple registrations, in the Northern region 289, Upper East had 162 and the Upper West region had 120, that brings it to a total of 2,864 individuals who have done double or multiple registrations.”

Mr. Parry, however, indicated that “it is difficult to tell why people would indulge in multiple registrations in large numbers in certain parts of the country, but whichever the case may be, double registration is an offense and the necessary action would be taken to address this issue.”

Source: Citifmonline.com

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EC Will Not Extend Biometric Registration Deadline

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Friday, 04 May 2012 00:00

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EC Will Not Extend Biometric Registration Deadline

The Electoral Commission has declared it has no intention of extending the biometric voter registration exercise.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}It is unclear whether they would be allowed to exercise their franchise in December since they are yet to be registered.

Some political parties have called for an extension following the shortage of materials and the breakdown of equipment at some registration centres.

According to the acting Public Relations Officer of the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry, the large numbers of Ghanaians registered, indicate that an extension of the registration will be unnecessary.

“Just at the beginning of the exercise there were reports of shortage of registration forms, quickly the commission mobilised over two million forms and so there have been no complains of registration problems,” he added.

Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party’s National Youth Organiser, Anthony Abayifa Karbo, insists the EC should create enough space to deal with the issue of the breakdown of machines which delayed the exercise in some areas.

According to Mr. Karbo, there are still reports of the breakdown of equipment which results in long hours of queuing.

But, the Convention People’s Party’s (CPP) Communications Director, Nii Armah Akomfrah on the other hand, said there is no need for the extension.

“The exercise has gone smoothly in terms of what the EC intends to do. There have been challenges but I don’t think as a whole, there will be a need to extend the registration time,” he argued.

Source: Citifmonline.com

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Bawumia Got It All Wrong... - Govt

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Category: Business & Finance

Created on Friday, 04 May 2012 00:00

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Bawumia Got It All Wrong... - Govt

The government has described as mischievous and untenable the statement of the New Patriotic Party’s running mate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia, to the effect that the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) had doubtful credibility.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Dr Bawumia questioned the credibility and independence of the GSS in producing credible inflation figures.

In reaction to assertions of Dr Bawumia, the government, in a statement signed by Abdul Hakim Ahmed, Media Liaison Officer of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, said although the running mate questioned the credibility and independence of the GSS, he gave credit to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for “transforming the economy from a low HIPC economy to a lower middle income economy in eight years.

The statement said: “One may ask about the data he used in assessing Ghana’s lower middle income status.”

“The same GSS data when the data suits him, he uses it but when it doesn’t he condemns it.”

At the fifth in the series of Ferdinand Ayim Memorial Lectures on the state of the economy in Accra on Wednesday, Dr Bawumia said these and others which sought to impugn the credibility and reliability of the GSS in what he termed as a critique of the economic achievements of the NDC government.

With reference to the single-digit inflation of which Dr Bawumia rubbished its achievement, by basing his doubts on an alleged inconsistency with economic fundamentals and development in key macroeconomic indicators, the statement said the economy of Ghana, like any developing country, had market imperfections and would not exhibit a theoretical relationship among inflation, exchange rate, and interest rate as alleged.

Additionally, the statement said historical data suggested that such departures also occurred in the period of 2000-2008.

The statement wondered why Dr Bawumia should compare the price of six selected items in three years to make a case that the increases in those prices were not consistent with inflation figures.

“Inflation measured by the Ghana Statistical Service is annual and does not span a three-year horizon,” it said.

The statement said the calculation of inflation as exhibited in the submission of Dr Bawumia violated any inflation formula.

“Inflation is calculated as a monthly change, point-to-point (year-on-year), and annual average... Nowhere in the world is inflation calculated the way Dr Bawumia calculated it.

“In addition, the basket of goods and services used in measuring inflation is much more representative than the few commodities he selected. There is, therefore no rational basis for debunking the single-digit inflation figures as he did,” the statement said.

A major weakness of Dr Bawumia’s analysis, according to the statement, was that he mixed the rebased Gross Domestic Product series with that of the old series, thereby drawing invalid conclusions.

For example, the statement said, the growth rate of the economy had increased from 3.7 per cent to 8.4 per cent from 2000 to 2008 that he stated was misleading as the 3.7 per cent was based on the old Gross Domestic Product (GDP) series (1993=100) and the 8.4 per cent was based on the rebased GDP series (2006=100).

The statement said Dr Bawumia’s assertion that the economy expanded six fold between 2000-2008 was not factually correct.

That was because the GDP of US16,496 (old series) in 2008 was only a multiple of 3.3 of the GDP of US$4,983 million (old series) in 2000.

It said the growth rates of 7.4 per cent, 15.1 per cent and eight per cent for agriculture, industry, and services sectors for 2008 based on the new series were correct.

However, in 2007, the agriculture sector grew by negative 1.7 per cent. In addition the industry sector which grew by 15.1% in 2008 was mainly due to the growth in the electricity subsector of 19.4%. That was up from a negative growth of 17.2% in 2007.

The statement said Dr Bawumia disputed the fiscal deficit of 14.5 per cent of GDP (old series) the NPP government left behind in 2008, but said that it should be noted that the fiscal deficit of 6.5 per cent of GDP he quoted for 2008 was based on the new series and included divestiture receipts.

“If divestiture receipts are excluded, the fiscal deficit for 2008 was 8.5 per cent of GDP (new series) which is equivalent to the 14.5 per cent (old series) quoted in the 2009 budget.

“Dr Bawumia also states that the debt to GDP ratio reduced from 189 per cent in 2000 to 29 per cent by 2008. The 189 per cent debt to GDP ratio is based on the old series while the 29 per cent ratio is based on the new series. The statistics, however, show that the debt to GDP ratio in 2000 is 181 per cent (old series) and 49 per cent in 2008 (old series). Again it is intellectually dishonest to compare the ratios based on the old and new series,” the statement said.

“The fact that oil prices had increased by 13 per cent between 2009 and 2011 did not necessarily mean that the country benefitted from that increase from 2009 as the speaker implied.

“We only started exporting oil in 2011. In addition, the entire oil revenue is not available for the state as state’s Carried and Participating interest in the Jubilee Fields is 13.5 per cent,” the statement pointed out.

According to the statement, using selective statistics to describe the performance of the agriculture sector, Dr Bawumia claimed that rather than expanding, the agriculture sector had seen steadily declining growth rates from 7.4 per cent in 2008 to 0.8 per cent by 2011.

Reacting, the government said it should be pointed out that the agriculture sector contracted by 1.7 per cent in 2007, a situation which never occurred during 2009-2011 period.

“In 2007, all the subsectors in agriculture contracted except livestock. Crops, cocoa, forestry & logging, and fishing contracted by 1.4 per cent, 8.2 per cent, 4.1 per cent, and 7.2 per cent respectively,” it said and wondered why Dr Bawumia excluded cocoa in his analysis of the crop subsector.

On fishing, the government said it should be noted that contraction in the subsector was usually accompanied by an expansion.

For example in 2007, it said, the sub-sector contracted by 7.2 per cent but its growth rebounded to 17.4 per cent in 2008 before contracting again at 5.7 per cent in 2009.

The analysis of the industrial sector performance also left out the contraction of the electricity sub-sector in 2007 as the sector contracted by 17.2 per cent which was much worse than the contraction of 0.8 per cent in 2011.

On unemployment, Dr Bawumia asserted that the growth of the economy was jobless and quoted the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary-General to substantiate his point.

The government said without any reference to any employment survey, one wondered the source of Dr Bawumia’s evidence for jobless growth.

On fiscal developments and public debt, the statement explained that the borrowing policy of government was premised on debt sustainability.

“The main issue is not the amount of money borrowed but what the amount borrowed is used for and whether the borrowing can be serviced sustainably. Our debt indicators clearly show that as at the end 2011 our total debt to GDP ratio stood at 40.35% which is far below the debt threshold of 60 per cent for lower middle-income countries. A sizeable number of the projects executed using the loan facilities are self-financing.”

“In terms of the use of loan resources for example, the US$850 million out of the US$3 billion Chinese loan facility would be used for the provision of gas infrastructure for the production of gas,” the statement said.

Source: PeaceFM

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