General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. John Boadu has described the National Democratic Congress (NDC's) position on the upcoming December referendum as symptomatic of a factious party.
According to him, they are "double-faced and have a proclivity to indulge in deliberate deceptiveness".
Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia program, he dismissed reports of division within the ruling party on the election of MMDCEs saying the NPP still stands by its earlier decision, unlike the National Democratic Congress.
"...the report of division over the election of MMDCEs was false...those who made that report have apologized to me in person over their falsehood.
"Though am disappointed in the position of the NDC, I am not surprised at all because they do not wish the country well. But I pray that they will find common ground with us and support the referendum," he added.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), earlier this week asked Ghanaians to vote against the proposed amendment of Article 55 (3) of the 1992 Constitution which will make local government elections partisan.
Article 55 (3) states that “subject to the provisions of this article, a political party is free to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programmes of a national character and sponsor candidates for elections to any public office other than to District Assemblies or lower local government units.’’
The referendum has become necessary because Article 55 is an entrenched provision of the Constitution and therefore can only be amended through a referendum.
Voting for the proposed amendment has been scheduled for December 17, but the NDC is against it.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Chairman of the party, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo said the local government system should remain non-partisan and that individuals should contest the District Assembly and Unit Committee elections on their own merit.
“We, therefore, decided to campaign for a NO vote at the referendum and to urge all Ghanaians to vote NO at the referendum.
“The consequence of exporting this polarization into the District Assemblies is that very soon in our villages, there will be “NDC Communal Labour day” and “NPP Communal Labour day”. There will also be an “NDC market” and “NPP market” And so on and so forth,” Mr. Ofosu Ampofo stated.
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Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]
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When people separate what happens at the national level, from local governance events, they misrepresents the issue. The MP has a home at the "local level". The DCE whom the president appoints lives and stays with the people at the "local level". They do not hang on trees somewhere in the sky called national level which is removed from the local people. We know their homes within our communities - and we know the party to which they belong. That has not brought division nor voilence. Vote Yes to garner development based on ideas! Then we'll see at the very local levels, those parties with ideas and those who do not have. Why, are some people afraid for the survival of the political tradition?
John Boadu ne nkwas*a keka. At 50yrs, you still haven't learnt sense. 2020 is just a few months away. You and that evil dwarf will be booted out like sh*t. We are sick and tired of you. That nansins must stop!
VOTE BIG...NO
I am Atsu responding to you: Mr.hidden man. Upon noticing my Ewe name and my commentary you thought those words cannot come from an Ewe person. Right there you showed your tribalistic tenets. The history you wanted me to check is nothing but the propaganda tool people like you have used since the advent of PNDC/NDC in Ghanaian political system. This has led the Volta Region not progressing as it should, because we follow you blindly, whilst your kids and relatives school in good schools and our kids barely finish primary school. With the NPP's Free Education System, our kids can go to the same schools your kids are going. You know Volta don't have any major natural resource, so human capital is our last resort and Nana Addo has given us the chance to develop that resource so we will surely reciprocate come 2020 elections, by voting massively for the NPP.
@nana. I conclude upon reading your comment, that you do not understand the full facts of the matter, and suggest as follows: that you seek education and verification on the issue before coming out strong with your submission, because the Minority in Parliament had long supported this referendum idea in Parliament, so a simple check at the Parliamentary Hansard would have saved us this misunderstandings. You and I know that there is political lobbying under the Local Level Elections. You know the number of times both the NPP and NDC nominated MMDCEs have suffered confirmation defeat in the hands of the Assembly members due to the different political lineage.Even the nomination itself by the President is a major onerous /problematic task.So what prevent us from making it open? Why do we like to operate under the darkness and proclaim to be a Christain/Moslem/etc country practicing multiparty democracy? If we were to go by your analogy: and suppose two brothers of different political ideologies are interested in becoming an assemblyman in their area, what will be the criteria to measure their suitability for the position? Will it be a competent pro-developmental ideology or an incompetent under-developmental ideology laced with social status (that is, marital, relations, tribal, etc, connections)? In this scenario,the competent individual who holds developmental ideology for the greater good of the community will never get to be elected, because social status considerations are so ingrained culturally in some tribes. Therefore to give meaning to our democracy and hold individuals accountable to their actions, multiparty at the grassroots level will be the better option. In this way you "nana", will not find it necessary to sponsor a supposed competent pro-developmental ideological party assembly candidate and I, Logic, will not find it necessary to sponsor an incompetent under-developmental ideological party candidate under the guise of the current so called non-partisanship system. Because I want competent people to rule over me, and you want incompetent people to rule over you. Simple.
The is something peculiar about NPP spokespersons. They seem to portray a character trait that depicts intolerance. They are free to advocate for YES, but when someone says they are against it, NO, then they are evil. What sorts of demonic individuals are we dealing with. I just can't understand. Why should everyone agree with all their positions??? It is so hard to figure out. If you disagree with then then, you don't have any intelligence. Too bad.
Learn from history. Tribalism isn't an NDC thing. It's for the UPist, the grandfathers of the NPP. Akuffo Addo the current president and Yaw Osafo Marfo all support tribalism. Listen Akuffo Addo said ''Yen Akanfu) dea, yedo yeho. Ye kuo ye, akokodurofu) ne te ye kuo NPP. Atiwa kura yekyere biribir kakra w)h). All die be die. According to Yaw Osarfo Marfo, Ewes and Northerners shouldn't be allowed to rule Ghana because resources aren't in from their areas. NDC and NPP, who are tribal? And next time, don't use Ewe name to be spewing ga5rbage9. Use your ethnic name
..."Symptomatic Of Its Revolutionary DNA", and their uncompromising tribalistic stance that has created in them the monster envy and jealousy, and blinded their academic intelligence.
Mr Boadu, you don't get it. The issue is, we do not want people who want to contest for those seat to run on any political party even though the local people are electing them. This provides the community a bigger opportunity of having a wider interested people who might have the vision, ideas and can-do spirit in solving basic problems without any political cloud. The point is, there are a lot of people like that with better business connection, ideas and investors who can bring in the needed change faster and better than politically supported person who might occupy such position not because they merit it but to do the bidding of their political leaders. And when that happens, we will be back to square one just as we have it today. There will be no change. If we elect them without any partisan cloud, their only focus will be on delivering the best service to us, fighting to attract the best brains into their cities in other to ensure their re-election which will be based on results not political fun-fare and propaganda. The benefits of non-partisan interest in electing these people far out-weigh what the NPP are proposing. In this regard, any and every body can participate in developing our various communities, we will rely unduly on central government for contracts, projects etc. we can develop faster with resources allocated to us and we will not have to lay blame on political parties. How is this difficult for you to understand and commit to. Why do you want to further divide the country on political lines through out our lives. Just do the daring and common sense thing.