PNC plans to revive grass-root, (Monday, March 11, 2013, pg 16)

The People’s National Convention (PNC) is to roll out measures to revive its grass-root structures which were non-existent during the 2012 elections to strengthen the party’s fortunes in subsequent elections.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview, the National Organiser of the PNC, Mr Emmanuel Wilson, said a post-mortem of the party’s performance in last year’s polls revealed that besides the crippled structures on the ground, some national executives were not truthful to the party.

“The reasons for which we recorded single digit in the elections are numerous but key among them was the attitude of some of the executives who were pursuing other political parties’ interest rather than our party’s interest,” he said.

PNC National Organiser, Emmanuel Wilson

He cited the example of the party’s National Youth Organiser, Mr Abu Ramadan, who, he alleged, campaigned on the platform of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at a time the party was also mobilising supporters across the country to endorse its flag bearer, Mr Hassan Ayariga, for the Presidency.

He also took issue with the actions and inaction of the party’s presidential hopeful who, he said, communicated in a manner that fed into perceptions that he was pursuing the interest of another political party.

“If you have a flag bearer whose utterances on the campaign platform gave rise to people to read meanings into your actions and inaction, then you can imagine the challenge we faced,” he said.

The statistics

The PNC contested the 2012 elections hoping to improve on its dwindling fortunes since 2000. Many analysts believed that the party’s four-time presidential hopeful, Dr Edward Mahama, had lost the magnet to attract voters, hence the need for a new face.

That reflected in the party’s 2012 congress where delegates endorsed Mr Ayariga to carry the party’s aspirations into the 2012 elections.

Hassan Ayariga, PNC Presidetial hopeful in the 2012 elections

But the candidate whom enthusiastic party supporters thought would improve its fortune turned out to be the worst performer in its history, garnering just 24,617 votes out of the close to  14,158,890 valid votes cast.

Per the figure, the PNC flag bearer averagely did not get a single vote in 1,383 out of 26,000 polling stations across the country.

The party managed to retain only the Builsa South seat out of the two seats it had in Parliament from 2009.

In 1996, Dr Edward Mahama recorded 3.0 per cent (214,373). The figure dropped to 2.5 per cent (189,659) in the 2000 elections; went further down to 1.92 per cent (165,375)  in 2004 and slopped again to 0.86 (73,618) per cent  in 2008 with Dr Mahama still as the presidential aspirant.

To deal with its abysmal performance, Mr Wilson said the party would begin a sustained effort with the organisers at the constituency level to revive interest at the grass roots.

According to Mr Wilson, among the factors that worked against the party in last year’s elections was the fact that it went to congress late to elect both national executives and a flag bearer.

That, he stated did not give the national executive adequate time to roll out plans and programmes as their plates were filled with election matters.

In that respect, he said it was time to ensure that the party went to congress at least two years ahead of time to elect both its flag bearer and national executives to give them enough time to implement strategies that would make the party relevant to the electorate.

The performance of the PNC was a trend that did not deviate from other parties sympathetic to Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s ideology.

While the Convention People’s Party’s Dr Foster Abu Sakara was widely tipped to improve upon the party’s performance from the 2008 elections, the CPP is licking its wounds with a performance that fell below expectation. 

In 2008, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, the then CPP flag bearer, recorded 112,673 votes,  representing  1.32 per cent  of the valid votes cast. But in 2012, Dr Sakara recorded a marginal 20,323 votes representing  0.18 per cent of the valid votes. 

The story was  no different  for the Great Consolidated Party as it  numbers, even though better than those of the  CPP and the PNC, was not satisfactory. While the party could not contest the 2008 elections because of problems with nomination, in the 2012 elections, Dr Henry Larty, its new apostle of the ‘domestication’ policy, polled 38,223 votes, representing  0.35 per cent of the votes.

Nkrumahist merger

Making a case for early talks for a merger on the Nkrumahist fronts, Mr Wilson said the parties, especially the CPP and the PNC, had failed to merge because of entrenched interests brought in by some leaders of the two parties.

Doing a diagnosis of the elections, he observed that the trend from the 2012 elections indicated that Ghanaians cast their votes within three categories --- parties, personalities and messages.

“Ghanaians are beginning to say they don’t want to throw their votes away, especially when they see your party as too small. These are the issues that would be driving our quest to make the Nkrumahist front stronger for the next elections,” he said.

He said the way forward was for the parties to take actions that would ensure that they increased their votes.

To PNC supporters, he expressed appreciation for their show of zeal and loyalty even in the face of frustration.

He commended the electorate in the Builsa South Constituency for keeping Mr Alhassan Azong in Parliament.

“We are assuring them that we are doing all we can to make the PNC more vibrant than it is today,” he added.