After openly declaring his intention to confront his party and giving signals of operating from without to ensure the cleansing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), ex-President Jerry John Rawlings appears hesitant on going head-to-head with the NDC in Election 2012.
While the move to process the National Democratic Party�s (NDP) registration at the Electoral Commission clearly had the blessings of the Rawlingses, it was significant that the two were out of the country when a leading member of the proposed new party, Dr Kwasi Offei Agyemang, went for registration papers at the Electoral Commission head office.
The Rawlingses� spokesperson, Kofi Adams, in a radio interview several weeks ago, had hedged by hinting that the Rawlingses could form a party based on the principles underlying the June 4 and December 31 revolutions, and declaring also that others could be planning to form parties based on the same principles.
However, reacting to the news of the National Democratic Party's emergence, Mr Adams was quoted as saying, "When you form a community, you do not leave the community and abandon your course simply because a few people are misbehaving. We shall stay and fight it until the right thing is done.�
The double entendre is not accidental. It speaks to a still developing strategy on the most effective way on how to 'rescue' the NDC.
As Mr Adams put it in his interview with Adakabre, �Don�t be surprised if a new party is formed with the intention of salvaging an existing party.�
So while the NDP seeks to fly the flag of the true 'NDC,' NDC's founder may support it without joining.
The real question is whether Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings will agree to be the presidential candidate of the NDP.
Posters and T-shirts proclaiming the former first lady as a presidential candidate have been sighted, but with the little amount of time left for the elections it would be difficult to mount a serious campaign.
If the calculation, however, is still to take the NDC out of government so that the 'disease' can be better treated, then her candidature might make sense.
Sensing the opportunity provided in former President Rawlings� silence on the NDP, the NDC in a statement signed by Propaganda Secretary Quashigah has stated that it regards the "reported association of our former President to the new party as mere speculation and will not make any statement on the matter until the former President himself comes out."
More pointedly, it directed that "all who speak in the name of the NDC in this matter must therefore do so with circumspection and to remain focused on what the Mills administration has achieved in the face of daunting challenges."
With this step by the 'true believers' of the June 4 and December 31 principles, the one certainty is distraction of the NDC, especially in constituencies where the new party attracts some local champions.
Whether that becomes pivotal or not in the elections will depend on many other factors, including the perceptions of the incumbent and its main challengers.
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