The decision by minority Members of Parliament to scupper the proposal to bring forward this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections will only serve to delay the inevitable defeat of opposition leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the national organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has said.
Parliament on Thursday July 21 voted against the proposed amendment by the Electoral Commission (EC) to move the poll date from December 7 to the first Monday of November in every election year.
A total of 125 MPs voted in favour of the change while 95 decided against it. This meant YES votes could not get the two-thirds majority required by law to push the proposal through. This year’s elections will, therefore, be held on December 7.
But speaking on Accra100.5FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, a day after the decision by the legislative body, Mr Adams said by the development, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had betrayed its fears of imminent defeat given that it had shot down the idea to hold elections earlier than usual, to ensure adequate time for handing over in the event of defeat for the NDC.
“This means the NPP itself has tacitly admitted that this year’s elections, they are not going to win; victory will not be theirs, it will be the NDC’s. So, if John Mahama will be handing over to himself, he does not require a longer transition period,” he told host Chief Jerry Forson.
Mr Adams dismissed talk that holding elections in December will allow for an extra month of campaigning, saying the parties in the polls had had four years to sell their message to the electorate and wondered what difference an extra 30 days of electioneering would make.
According to him, the NDC were “November and December champions” whose fortunes would not be affected by the date change, but the NPP was only holding up an eventual third defeat for its presidential aspirant.
“So,…they [the NPP] are just prolonging Akufo-Addo’s defeat; whatever date they take it to, his third defeat will happen,” he said.
The former aide to the Rawlingses wondered why some NPP MPs had voted against the proposal with the reasoning that the Electoral Commission (EC) did not have sufficient funds to conduct the polls in November.
Mr Adams explained that since the party was not in charge of the country’s treasury, it could not be certain about the finances of the electoral body. He indicated that the decision of the EC to extend the exhibition of the register of voters to 21 days, from the usual duration of a fortnight, was a pointer that the body was well-funded.
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