Let's emulate NPP-Spio-Garbrah (Tuesday, August 17, 2010, Front page)
A LEADING member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as an important milestone in the evolution of Ghana’s democracy the method used by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to elect its 2012 flag bearer.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah noted that the decision by the NPP to elect its party leader through constituency-based voting in 228 out of the 230 constituencies was commendable.
“That the NPP has gone beyond that decision to successfully organise these elections and announce a winner within a few hours of the ending of the voting is worthy of appreciation by all other political parties in Ghana and, indeed, in many developing countries,” he said.
According to Dr Spio-Garbrah, who is also a Vice-Chairman of the NDC, it was now up to the other political parties — the PNC, CPP, NDC, GCPP, etc, — to determine, based on their own constitutions and political philosophies and traditions, how best to respond to that initiative by the NPP.
He counselled other parties not to pretend that the NPP event had no meaning, value or political impact, noting that at the minimum the NPP had successfully energised the grass roots and polling stations of its electorate by going down to the level of polling stations to derive its delegates, instead of assembling delegates at one location for a convention, which had been the general tradition of all political parties in Ghana until now.
He said the NDC was the party in Ghana with the best known political tradition of being people-oriented, having established the district assemblies concept and the devolution of power to the ordinary people from the PNDC era into the NDC period.
“So, if the NPP, which has traditionally been a party of the professional elite, chooses to devolve power in electing its leader from the grass roots, the NDC will have to do a self-analysis if it wishes to stay relevant to the ordinary masses,” he added.
Dr Spio-Garbrah stated that as the Ghanaian head of an international organisation, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), which organises annual conferences in Africa on e-Governance, which includes electronic voting, his organisation had also taken note of the ways in which advances in Ghana with regard to access to information and communications technology (ICT), especially access to mobile phones, computing and broadcasting, had contributed to the success of the NPP’s efforts.
Indeed, he noted that the CTO was organising an international conference in Accra from August 17-19 on the theme, “Connecting Rural Communities”, which aimed at using ICT to empower rural people socially, economically, politically and financially.
Dr Spio-Garbrah congratulated Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his overwhelming victory against other NPP opponents but warned him to expect defeat again at the hands of the NDC, come the 2012 national elections.
With respect to his congratulatory message to the NPP, Dr Spio-Garbrah invited politicians not to always see negatives in the actions or opinions of others, especially those who belonged to other parties.
“It cannot be that everything NPP does is bad and everything NDC does is good, or vice versa,” he said.
In his view, “Ghana’s democratic growth will be further strengthened when we are able to see the best in one another and use any good example we can learn from others to develop the whole nation.”
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah noted that the decision by the NPP to elect its party leader through constituency-based voting in 228 out of the 230 constituencies was commendable.
“That the NPP has gone beyond that decision to successfully organise these elections and announce a winner within a few hours of the ending of the voting is worthy of appreciation by all other political parties in Ghana and, indeed, in many developing countries,” he said.
According to Dr Spio-Garbrah, who is also a Vice-Chairman of the NDC, it was now up to the other political parties — the PNC, CPP, NDC, GCPP, etc, — to determine, based on their own constitutions and political philosophies and traditions, how best to respond to that initiative by the NPP.
He counselled other parties not to pretend that the NPP event had no meaning, value or political impact, noting that at the minimum the NPP had successfully energised the grass roots and polling stations of its electorate by going down to the level of polling stations to derive its delegates, instead of assembling delegates at one location for a convention, which had been the general tradition of all political parties in Ghana until now.
He said the NDC was the party in Ghana with the best known political tradition of being people-oriented, having established the district assemblies concept and the devolution of power to the ordinary people from the PNDC era into the NDC period.
“So, if the NPP, which has traditionally been a party of the professional elite, chooses to devolve power in electing its leader from the grass roots, the NDC will have to do a self-analysis if it wishes to stay relevant to the ordinary masses,” he added.
Dr Spio-Garbrah stated that as the Ghanaian head of an international organisation, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), which organises annual conferences in Africa on e-Governance, which includes electronic voting, his organisation had also taken note of the ways in which advances in Ghana with regard to access to information and communications technology (ICT), especially access to mobile phones, computing and broadcasting, had contributed to the success of the NPP’s efforts.
Indeed, he noted that the CTO was organising an international conference in Accra from August 17-19 on the theme, “Connecting Rural Communities”, which aimed at using ICT to empower rural people socially, economically, politically and financially.
Dr Spio-Garbrah congratulated Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his overwhelming victory against other NPP opponents but warned him to expect defeat again at the hands of the NDC, come the 2012 national elections.
With respect to his congratulatory message to the NPP, Dr Spio-Garbrah invited politicians not to always see negatives in the actions or opinions of others, especially those who belonged to other parties.
“It cannot be that everything NPP does is bad and everything NDC does is good, or vice versa,” he said.
In his view, “Ghana’s democratic growth will be further strengthened when we are able to see the best in one another and use any good example we can learn from others to develop the whole nation.”
Comments
Post a Comment