‘I Caused Nana Addo’s Defeat In 2008’

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Category: Politics

Created on Friday, 04 May 2012 00:00

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‘I Caused Nana Addo’s Defeat In 2008’

{sidebar id=12 align=right}The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bekwai, Mr. Kwadwo Osei Owusu alias Joe Wise, says he is responsible for the loss the New Patriotic Party (NPP) suffered in the 2008 elections.

Speaking at an NPP rally at Bekwai last Tuesday, he said, “Bekwai presented a fractured front. In the year 2000 when I was party chairman, we worked very hard and Kufuor won with 44,000 votes, NDC had only 4000.

In 2004, we even extended that, but in 2008, we dropped and the reason is simple-all the attention and resources available to us were used to focus on the competition between me as an independent candidate and the NPP candidate so we abandoned the campaign for the presidency.

“We virtually left Nana Addo’s ballot unattended, we left no message targeted at the opposition then and therefore the opposition gained grounds. Whereas our presidential candidate lost 6000 plus votes, the NDC gained over 1000 votes and is one major contribution to why Nana lost eventually,” he said.

The maiden New Patriotic Party (NPP) rally in the Bekwai Constituency of the Ashanti Region had been surrounded by tension, owing to the feeling of mistrust between Joe Wise’s supporters and those of the vanquished NPP candidate, Mr. Kofi Adusei.

The rally had been billed as the “National launch of the NPP’s campaign message,” and enthusiasm had been high among party supporters who started filling the rally ground as early as 10:00am.

The main reason for the enthusiasm was as a result of the massive media hype given to the programme, with the names of the flag bearer of the NPP and his running mate; National Chairman; former President J.A. Kufuor; Member of Parliament for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong, and other notable figures, promoted as those who would address the rally.

However, deep into the programme, information filtered through that the national leadership had dodged the rally for fear their appearance would deepen the cracks in the party in Bekwai.

Some of the thousands of supporters who had thronged the rally grounds, some from as far as Kumasi and other nearby towns and villages, started leaving the rally grounds in mid afternoon when it became clear that most of the invited gurus of the party would not be attending.

It will be recalled that the NPP in Bekwai became embroiled in misunderstandings going into the 2008 elections that made the incumbent MP, Mr. Kwadwo Osei Owusu, to disengage from the NPP and contest as an independent candidate.

That rift appeared to have not been properly mended and therefore even at the rally grounds, some supporters of Joe Wise and the vanquished NPP candidate, Mr. Kofi Adusei, were seen exchanging words over why Joe Wise had to be allowed to speak on an NPP platform when he had not officially been admitted back into the NPP fold.

Although he came to the rally ground, Mr. Adusei, who also commands an appreciable support, refused to go on the platform and did not address the crowd.

There was rumour that per what was happening, the leadership of the NPP was planning to impose Joe Wise as the party’s candidate for the 2012 election, a situation supporters of Mr. Adusei were not taking kindly since their candidate is said to be still interested in another chance to wrestle the Bekwai seat from Joe Wise.

Addressing the rally, the Regional Chairman of the party, Mr. F.F. Anto, moved swiftly to defuse the tension by declaring that the NPP currently has no candidate for Bekwai.

He said the national leadership was preparing to organize elections in the area and called for calm among supporters in the constituency.

After his mea culpa, Joe wise said he had since his victory worked hard at bringing the party together.

In an interview, he said the over 34,000 people who voted for him had been re-admitted into the NPP and some were even holding positions.

He refused claims that the party’s big names shunned the rally because of the existing rift among supporters of the party in Bekwai and explained that Nana Addo explained to him the Sunday prior to the rally that there had been an emergency for which he had to rush to Nigeria.

According to hi, Nana Addo’s running mate should have attended, but he was also scheduled to deliver a speech somewhere and therefore could not make it; so the National Organiser was made to come.

As to his plans, he confirmed, “An election would be conducted in September for the NPP’s candidate for this constituency. I shall enter the race and I will surely win to represent NPP in Parliament.” While confirming that he had had no relationship with Mr. Kofi Adusei since their last contest, he stressed that the NPP was bigger and more important than any individual and therefore what was crucial was how to keep the party together.

He said there had been much improvement in the unity of the party in Bekwai.

“In the past, you could hardly get the entire executives working together as we are doing now,” he said, and advised against people seeing the competition between Mr. Adusei and him as disunity.

Others who addressed the rally included the National Organiser, Alhaji Muctar Bamba and some MPs.

Source: The Finder

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Registration Of Prisoners In Limbo wWth 48hrs To End Biometric Exercise

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Thursday, 03 May 2012 00:00

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Registration Of Prisoners In Limbo wWth 48hrs To End Biometric Exercise

With barely two days to end the biometric voter registration exercise, the fate of the nation’s prisoners is hanging in the balance.

It is unclear whether they would be allowed to exercise their franchise in December since they are yet to be registered.

The Electoral Commission in compliance with a Supreme Court ruling proposed to register the prisoners to enable them vote in December.

But the prison authorities rejected the proposal arguing that there was a problem with the true identification of the inmates.

The acting Public Relations Officer of the Electoral Commission, Christian Owusu Parry in an interview with Citi News said the prisoners will be registered when the Ghana Prisons Service authorities are able to establish their true identities.

“We indicated earlier on that we will register the prisoners during the fourth and final stages of the registration exercise, but consultation we had with the prison authorities have necessitated that we defer the registration of prisoners until a later date,” Mr. Parry said.

He added: “The prison authorities have indicated to us that they have difficulty establishing the true identity of some of the people in the prisons who want to register and that they will want a little more time in order to ascertain the true identities of this people before we are able to register them.”

Mr. Parry said as soon the EC is given the clearance, it will go ahead and register the prisoners to enable them exercise their franchise in December.

“We are waiting for them to give us the go ahead so that we will go into the prisons to register them; anytime they say that they have been able to resolve the issue of establishing the identities of the prisoners the commission will go into the prisons and register them,” he assured.

He also hinted that the EC has no intention of extending the biometric voter registration exercise despite calls by some political parties for an extension following the shortage of materials and the breakdown of equipment at some registration centres.

Meanwhile, the Prisons Public Relations Officer, ASP Courage Atsem, said the challenge of authenticating the true identity of the prisoners has still not been resolved.

“I must admit that the challenges that we have in respect to establishing the authentic identity of the inmates has still not been resolved,” he said.

He explained, “A joint committee made up of officials of the Electoral Commission as well as the Ghana Prisons Service has been put up to work out how best to come out with that challenge so it is not as if the Ghana Prisons Service has not allowed the Electoral Commission to register the prisoners.”

Source: Citifmonline.com

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Ghana's Total Debt Up

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Category: Business & Finance

Created on Thursday, 03 May 2012 00:00

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Ghana's Total Debt Up

Ghana's total debt increased by 10 per cent to GH¢23,608.5 million by the end of the second half of 2011."

That represented 39.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The country’s domestic debt over the same period increased by 9.7 per cent to GH¢11,841.1 million, representing 20 per cent of GDP, while its external debt increased by 7.2 per cent to US$7,589.5 million, representing 19.9 per cent of GDP.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}A Senior Economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr J. K. Kwakye, made this known in Accra Wednesday, during a review of the Ghanaian economy in the second half of 2011.

The review focused on four key areas of the economy, namely, the real sector, the fiscal sector, money and prices and the external sector.

It follows the first-half year review presented by the IEA late last year.

Regarding the long period of the economic analysis, Dr Kwakye explained, “The reviews are carried out with some lag due to late availability of some of the data, especially quarterly GDP data.”

He said while the GDP rebasing and oil production had increased Ghana’s capacity to carry higher debt at sustainable levels, “it is important that new debt is applied to high-return projects to boost economic growth and thereby ease the burden of future repayments”.

Dr Kwakye said during the half year, Ghana’s external current account recorded a deficit of US$2,655.1 million and attributed the decline to factors such as deficits in the merchandise trade and services and income account.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}He, however, noted that the capital and financial account was in surplus by US$546.5 million during the half year.

He said the continuous high trade and current account deficits reflected large imbalances between exports and imports, adding, “External imbalances increase external debt and put pressure on the exchange rate.”

“Reducing the imbalances calls for policies to increase export earnings, including the expansion and increase of value content of exports, and to reduce import demand, including the provision of necessary support for domestic industries to produce more import substitutes,” he stressed.

Dr Kwakye said Ghana’s gross international reserves increased to US$5.4 billion during the half year, equivalent to 3.2 months of imports, the import cover being the conventional measure of reserve adequacy.

“But, even here, there are no hard and fast rules. Countries that are vulnerable to economic shocks, including commodity-producing countries, need to maintain higher levels of reserves as a cushion.

“Also, countries with less flexible exchange rate regimes need higher reserves to ‘protect’ the exchange rate. For these countries, a rule of thumb is to keep reserves adequate to cover at least four months of imports,” he contended.

He said in the third quarter of 2011, real GDP grew strongly at about 24 per cent, driven by agriculture, but it slackened in the fourth quarter to below one per cent, with growth in all sectors slowing.

He said on the whole, in 2011 real GDP growth was over 14 per cent, “driven again by oil-fuelled strong growth of industry as a whole”.

At that rate, Ghana reportedly posted about the highest rate of growth rate worldwide, boosted by oil.

“While this is welcome news, it is important to ensure that economic growth spreads to other sectors, especially non-oil industries, in order to generate more jobs,” he submitted.

Dr Kwakye said maintaining inflation at a single digit, ending the year at 8.6 per cent, was due to continuous single-digit food inflation, while non-food inflation remained in double digits.

He said the persistent double-digit non-food inflation seemed to suggest that the drivers of inflation, such as high rates of monetary growth and exchange rate depreciation, remained strong.

He observed that persistent cedi decline had characterised Ghana’s exchange rate regime, which reflected a fundamental imbalance between foreign exchange supply and demand.

“Stemming the decline requires policy interventions to increase export earnings and reduce import demand,” Dr Kwakye recommended.

Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana

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NPP Shakes Bekwai

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Category: Politics

Created on Thursday, 03 May 2012 00:00

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NPP Shakes Bekwai

THE BEKWAI cocoa shield arena was turned into a human sea for more than five hours on Tuesday as thousands of New patriotic Party (NPP) supporters and activists converged there for the first Ashanti rally to set the tone for the party’s campaign in the region.

Led by National Organizer, Alhaji Mutah Bamba, the party announced its readiness to assume power with the view to better the lot of Ghanaians.

Amid thunderous applause and cheers from the crowd, the rally began with speeches by some Members of Parliament and the party’s regional capos who downgraded the much touted economic success of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Speaker after speaker described the NDC and its members as apologists of deceit and vain propaganda who have nothing good to offer Ghanaians except to dissipate state coffers and therefore must be voted out.

Former Council of State member, Nana Asonaba Dapaah said Ghanaians had become more impoverished under the present government than any other, after President Mills failed to provide the needed leadership for the country.

According to him, Ghana was gradually slipping back into the arena of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries bracket again due to the mass borrowing of money by the NDC government which is not being expended on useful ventures.

“While President Kufuor went in for grants, President Mills is going in for loans. The reason is not farfetched – the Council of State has become a rubber stamp with one man Kofi Awonor running the show,” he stated.

Mr. Dapaah said the cost of living and doing business had gone up with the cedi depreciating so badly, thereby putting businesses at a disadvantage.

Stephen Amoah, a member of the party, said the nation’s debt threshold had been increased from $8.1 billion in 2008 to $23.4 billion within the last three years.

Affectionately called Sticker, the NPP firebrand argued that Ghana had been plunged into serious economic hardship with astronomical tax rates and charges.

NPP National Organizer, Alhaji Mutah Bamba asked members of the party to remain resolute and steadfast in the face of violent attacks and intimidation being suffered at the hands of NDC goons.

From Ernest Kofi Adu, Bekwai

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

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