Resist scheme to turn Ghana into two-party state
The presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, is urging Ghanaians to resist schemes by some people to turn Ghana into a two-party state because that political system does not augur well for the country’s democracy.
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He said the two-party state agenda was only borne out of selfish interest, and not one that was in the best interest of the country.
“We are doing what I consider to be quite dangerous”, he said, as he shared his concerns over the matter with journalists in Accra.
Dr Nduom cited some journalists and media houses as accomplices to the two-party state scheme, saying they sought to promote the interest of only the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the expense of other political parties.
“It makes me very unhappy, and it is because many of the media people who either are affiliated to or support some NDC or NPP candidate, have made it a deliberate policy to only want to talk about the NDC candidate or the NPP candidate”, he submitted.
Dr Nduom said the two-party state scheme was often anchored on the premonition that the Americans had the Democrats and the Republicans, while the British had the Conservatives and Labour, which was not true, anyway.
He said the two-party state schemers also asserted that Ghanaians did not want a second round because it brought too much tension and cost too much money.
Furthermore, he said, they pushed a certain agenda that people should not vote for a candidate who could not win the election.
“It is wrong; and it is not that they are doing it in the name of democracy or in the interest of the people. For many of them, it is because they have been bought. It is as simple as that”, he contended.
Dr Nduom said the state-owned media in particular had been even and fair in this year’s electioneering, citing the Daily Graphic, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and the Ghana News Agency for plaudits.
But he did not have the same compliments for the private media.
“If a private media decides that I am for NDC or NPP and so we are going to promote an NDC or NPP agenda, I will not quarrel. But once you put yourself up that you are having an election platform and promoting democracy, you must promote the interest of everybody, and let that person fail or succeed based on their own merit”, he remarked.
Dr Nduom said the 1992 Constitution also perpetuated what he described as “an elected dictatorship” because it gave everything to the winner.
He urged the electorate to vote for the best candidate in the December polls based on the person’s competence and track record.
“So there is no such thing as a wasted vote; the only vote that is wasted is the one that you cast for somebody who ignores you, doesn’t do anything for you and doesn’t deliver on his promises. That is the wasted vote, not the prospective one”, he said.
Drawing some examples from Africa to buttress his confidence in the chances of the PPP in the election, even as a minority party, the PPP presidential candidate cast a glance at neighbouring Benin where Yayi Boni came from outside the two main political parties in that country to win an election and become president.
In a similar manner, he said, President Michael Sata of Zambia, after some persistence, contested and won presidential election in Zambia.
“So what makes some people want to force a two-party state in Ghana? It won’t work. We are not going anywhere; we are going to be here and we’ll compete and win”, he submitted.
Story by Kofi Yeboah