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Following several months of intense planning in the hope of taking the political stage by storm, the expectation of the National Democratic Party (NDP) was dashed last Thursday when it failed to meet the requirements set out by the Electoral Commission (EC) for the filing of nominations to contest Election 2012. The disappointment must be largely felt by the party�s flagbearer, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, who only last week was presented as the face to lead the party to an envisaged historic electoral victory in December. Interest in her candidature in particular was high, since for several months she had kept her cards close to her chest, leaving many people wandering if indeed she was interested in contesting the forthcoming elections as a presidential candidate on the ticket of a breakaway faction of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). The NDP which was formed following the late President John Atta Mills�s defeat of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings as the NDC congress in Sunyani last year by a group known as Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), was largely considered to be born out of sour grapes and a move intended to spoil the chances of the NDC, come elections in December. But the party had vehemently refuted this inference, stating that its presence on the political landscape was to bring about change in the way politics was being run in the country. At the NDP congress in Kumasi, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, in her acceptance speech, had explained that she accepted to lead the NDP by offering a leadership that pt the need of people over the interest of politics. With her husband, former President Jerry John Rawlings, by her side, she reiterated the fact that she was going to run a people-centered government where the interest of the common man would be placed above politics. This, she explained, meant the re-launching of a genuine citizens� democracy, where the best ideas flowed from communities rather than being imposed by the ruling elite. She and that of the NDP�s ambition to lead the country have now been regrettably scuttled. The party will now have to wait on the fringes for the next four years to come. The question that arises now is: what is next for the NDP and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings? Was she running to win or to spoil the chances of the NDC? Time will tell.