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I will count myself privileged to have been given the opportunity by NANA KONADU AGYEMAN-RAWLINGS to represent her as official polling agent for the Ashanti region delegates during the just ended congress in Sunyani. This gave me the rare opportunity and chance of observing the entire electoral process from a closer range than many other observers who were outside the inner perimeter- even closer than the �GRAY HAIR MEN/WOMEN� who occupied the dais. I went into the inner perimeter not only to watch and tally the vote casts but also to study the entire process and be a part of history in the making. What follows, therefore, is a portrait of a moment, no more in that Sunyani Coronation Park on that Saturday afternoon July 9 2011 when the NDC went to a congress to choose a flag bearer for election 2012. I did not go into that congress intending to write an article, or indeed to write at all; but my encounter with the place affected me so deeply and profoundly that in the end, I had no choice. For me, the first thing that welcomed me into that park was intimidation. Arriving in Sunyani that late Thursday afternoon, I felt the town had been besieged by armed police and military men wielding machine guns in their legions among the people. I imagined if I were a delegate coming from rural Ghana, and unfamiliar with this large presence of security forces- obviously deployed by commander in-chief president Mills to put fear into us- thereby affecting our voting decision. The full effect of the heavy security presence was yet to be felt in full as I was later to experience. One thing for sure though; the supporters who had the responsibility for the posters and our candidate�s visibility in the town did an excellent job. That Friday morning which was arrival day didn�t pass without undesirable incidences. As part of the advance team for my candidate who encountered the media, it would seem like a harmonious morning until a clique that was led by Hon. E. T Mensah attempted to deface posters of our candidate NANA KONADU AGYEMAN �RAWLINGS on the main gate of the coronation park venue for the congress. This was simply because; the president�s posters were less visible at the entrance which obviously irritated President Mills� supporters who then attempted with the use of ZOOM LION to deface the posters without the consent of the NANA KONADU CAMPAIGN TEAM. This obviously did not go down with the director of operations for the campaign who vehemently protested- generating some heat and tension in the process- until we came to a sort of a �gentleman�s agreement� to deface a certain portion of our posters. Later that morning, we met with Koku Anyidoho, Director of Communications at the Presidency, Fifi Kwetey, Dep. Fin. Minister as well as Alex Segbefia, Deputy Chief of Staff. Our conversations with them were very hearty and cordial. We even took pictures. Later that afternoon, as we sat on and among the many unoccupied chairs, I witnessed the sudden falling of a man on the pitch near the podium. He was walking among other people. Suddenly, he went down but was immediately held up and taken to a chair. I was later to find out that the man who had been conquered by fatigue is Ato Ahwoi the pseudo president of Ghana. Later that Friday evening, information came in from different directions and especially from delegates about various forms of inducements and manipulative tactics G.A.M.E had adopted towards the delegates in order to win the congress by the hook or the crook. Various sums of money ranging between 500-2000 GH were mentioned as varying amounts given to delegates. Delegates also reported that DCE�s and MCE�s were the agents of promises of jobs, contracts, travel opportunities etc. for example, several delegates reported that they were promised by Mills� agents to be taken to Switzerland for an ILO conference. Several hundred delegates were given this promise even though such a conference will normally have not more than fifteen (15) delegates from every country. Some delegates began to request the NANA KONADU campaign team to also come forth with our own inducements and bribes. Our principled candidate stood her grounds and refused to fall into their trap. After all, as she kept repeating, this contest is not about her. It is about the party, the ordinary people and the structures. Why must she pay to rescue the party? Talking about delegates, some of us believe - and especially after this NDC congress in Sunyani- that these people who cast their vote to choose president Mills cannot be considered delegates in the true sense of the word. They cannot convince some of us that their decision to vote the way that they did, and the malpractices they engaged in during the voting process was primarily in the interest of their constituents. I will come to the voting process and the irregularities that we experienced and protested to no avail. I don�t know about everyone else but I began to be afraid of what Mills and his team had planned to do to win the congress when the national security coordinator Col. Larry Lartey suddenly appeared that Saturday morning at the NDC founder�s hotel ostensibly to determine itinerary. I had a bad feeling about it and it soon became a nightmare when eventually the NDC founder and our BOLD candidate NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS arrived and entered through a �narrow gate� unused by the rest of the dignitaries including the president and vice president. Interestingly, when the so-called MC for the congress Hon. Elvis Afriyie Ankrah announced the entrance of the founder and wife into the stadium, it didn�t occur to him to allow for them to arrive before making another announcement almost immediately for an opening prayer. At this point, it became clear to most of us that there was a projection and roll out of a grand scheme to try to give an ignoble treatment to the NDC founder and former president as well as his wife and our candidate NANA KONADU AGYEMAN-RAWLINGS and to short- change the entire mass following of the NDC party and Ghanaians at large. The carefully selected delegates and observers had been orchestrated to give the party founder a cold reception. From the onset, things were wrong and tilted to favor president Mills. An MC selected by President Mills and his GAME team. A DJ also selected by them. Electoral committee of the party made up of only Mills supporters and only one NANA KONADU supporter. Accreditations fully controlled by GAME who ends up giving only a handful of observer tags to our team and producing far more than agreed numbers for their GAME supporters. No wonder that even the sound system was tampered with during speeches for malicious purposes. I was one of the first few polling agents to enter the inner perimeter after the announcement had been made that the process was about to begin. By this time only the security men, EC officials, GAME officials as well as occupants of the dais were inside the inner perimeter. I decided to go in there to locate the position of the Ashanti region delegates where I would be superintending for my candidate. Here, I want to put it on record that the security services were used to intimidate not only the delegates into voting for president Mills, they also tried to intimidate identified supporters and agents of NANA KONADU AGYEMAN-RAWLINGS into submission. I had a personal experience whiles walking within the inner perimeter and checking the EC officials. I was approached by a Mills agent. He wanted to see my accreditation tag even though the security men had already seen it before allowing me entry into the place. I showed it to him. Unsatisfied, he wanted to know why I was not wearing my tag. I ignored him, noticing that his intention was to intimidate me. I refused to answer any more questions from him. My �boldness level� was high by now thanks to the clarion call by my candidate in the slogan BE BOLD! It did not end there. A few minutes after walking away from the GAME agent, I was approached by two uniformed police men. I knew they had prompting from that agent. They also demanded to see my tag. I showed it to them but instead of looking, they wanted to take it away from me. I resisted them with all the vehemence but was overpowered and the tag seized from me. It took Hon. Inussah Fuseini, NDC MP for TAMALE central and member of the electoral committee of the party to retrieve my tag for me. And this was even before voting had begun. I was unfazed by all these machinations and remained determined to ensure the sanctity of the ballot. Voting time was finally here. I couldn�t believe what was going on. Being one of two official polling agents for my candidate, I had the responsibility of tallying the votes cast. My comrade Brogya Gyamfi checked the delegate�s register. On the other side for President Mills was a DCE standing beside me to tally votes. How did I know he was a DCE? The delegates- who obviously had a pact with him to do certain things- revealed his identity. They expressed surprise at seeing him and called out his title. This DCE was openly campaigning at the polling station against the regulations. He was preaching �double double� to the delegates who saw him last before casting their vote. My conclusion is that these DCE�s and ministers who served as polling agents for Mills were put there to ensure delegates compliance with certain things they had been asked to do. For example, people talked to each other freely whiles casting their ballot. They had begun to show their cast ballot to each other behind the polling booths which stood very close to each other. It is important to state here that unlike in previous congresses where the ballot boxes are placed close to the dais so that the party elders are able to witness at close range the electoral process thereby scaring people from engaging in voter irregularities, this time the ballot boxes were placed a gulf away from the podium to keep these planned and orchestrated irregularities out of sight. Some delegates were found to be untrustworthy to GAME and so were asked to take a picture of their vote to prove afterwards to merit what they had been promised. In the process of taking a picture of a cast ballot, the polling booth was brought down by one delegate before our very eyes. We began to protest- my colleague and me- against these irregularities. We got the EC officials to separate the polling booths wider apart. This didn�t end the irregularities. Bent on proving to the supervising DCE at the polling station, some delegates began waving openly their cast ballot to erase doubts about who they voted for. This we felt undermined the principle of a secret ballot. Again we protested. EC intervened and declared all such ballots that are exposed as invalid henceforth. Nevertheless, the irregularities at the polling station persisted. I finally tried to physically prevent a delegate from putting into the ballot box, a ballot paper which had been openly displayed for the viewing of the rest of the queuing delegates. I was met with strong resistance from the GAME agents present at this polling station. They insisted on allowing the paper dropped into the box. That brought a scuffle- bringing the idling young and armed police men on duty up on their feet to prevent violence. Here again, it is important, even crucial to state that I met face to face with physical intimidation and threats at this point. NII Lantey Vandapuye, and aid to president Mills and his agent during the congress rushed to our polling station where he met us strongly protesting against the non-secret ballot. Unable to have his way despite being power drunk, he openly threatened to have me arrested for protesting against these irregularities. I couldn�t believe the level of his folly. He forgot he was not in his office in the Osu dungeons. I dared him but he sneaked away like the coward that he is. At various stages during that afternoon, several of my friends said to me we have lost the election. I refused to believe them. I still had faith in the integrity of the delegates and hoped they will not breach the social contract with the people. Starting from when our party founder was ushered into a praying stadium, resulting in a cold reception, some comrades gave up the psychological war. Before the first vote was casts, my comrade and fellow polling agent gave up his mind also. I kept the attitude. The irregularities shook my faith. It was during counting that I was hit with the reality that it will be a disappointing result for us. The first fifteen (15) ballots picked out from the heap didn�t count my candidate. And this is the most populated polling station with 390 delegates from 39 constituencies plus ministers and functionaries from Ashanti. Not even the 40 delegates who endorsed the nomination forms for NANA KONADU AGYEMAN- RAWLINGS in the Ashanti region voted for her here. They had been overwhelmed by fear and corruption imposed by president Mills and his GAME, only nine (9) of them remained BOLD and preferred to remain with the truth. Of course, the fewer will always stand by the TRUTH.