Rawlings has finally abandoned her fight to contest the presidential election

 

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has finally abandoned her fight to contest the presidential election.

She says that instead that she will put her energy into ensuring that the newly formed NDP, of which she was elected leader in October, wins as many parliamentary seats as possible.

She told the Daily Graphic newspaper in an interview that, although she was confident of winning her court case against the Electoral Commission (EC) - which last month disqualified her from the presidential race on the grounds that her nomination papers had not been completed correctly before the deadline - it was clear that she could not be included in the electoral process this time around.

She stressed, however, that the NDP's parliamentary candidates were still campaigning under the vision of the NDP's manifesto which, she said, seeks to ensure that corruption is a thing of the past, and to elevate the position of women and children in Ghanaian society.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Ghana: Biometric voter registration exercise continues

Electoral Commission (EC) registration teams are to visit each of Ghana's 43 prisons from 29 May to allow prisoners to register to vote although, according to Electoral Commissioner Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, they will only be able to vote in the presidential poll in December and not in parliamentary elections. The president announced government's intention to allow prisoners to vote last year, after years of national debates, amid pressure from human rights campaigners and a Supreme Court ruling which was backed by President John Atta Mills.

The EC had initially planned to register prisoners during the 40-day biometric registration exercise but changed its mind because of the lack of credible databases confirming prisoners' identities. This prompted an outcry from human rights groups who said that the electoral body was reneging on its constitutional obligation to allow prisoners the right to elect their country's leader. For example the well-known human rights lawyer, Kojo Graham, threatened to take the EC to the Supreme Court if prisoners were not included in the biometric registration exercise. A Ghana Prison Service (GPS) taskforce was set up to tour the country's prisons, helping inmates to provide authentic identification details.

The EC has also announced that a biometric voter registration “mop-up” exercise is scheduled to take place on 9-10 June in selected centres across Ghana. This will allow those who were unable to register the first time around due to technical or other difficulties the chance to do so.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Ghana: PPP is formally recognised as a legitimate political party

The opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) - founded by former Convention People's Party (CPP) leader Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom following his controversial departure from the CPP - received its official political party certificate from the Electoral Commission (EC) last week in Accra. The party, which had earlier received a provisional certificate from the EC, is now set fair to contest the 2012 elections. Under the Electoral Law, however, the PPP must both declare its assets and provide additional information to the EC within 90 days of final certificate receipt or risk revocation of the certificate.

Assuming that the PPP completes these formalities, the CPP, in particular, should have additional competition in the forthcoming elections, to add to its recent woes caused by defections following Nduom's departure. None of this changes the reality that the elections will be a two horse race between the incumbent NDC and opposition NPP, with the fragmentation of the existing minor parties perhaps reducing their influence.

Nduom, upon hearing the favourable news, claimed that the PPP would “conduct ourselves properly”, and to “protect the integrity of the elections”. This is something that should be easier for the smaller parties while the heavyweight NDC and NPP fight all the way in an election that promises to be extremely close. He also criticised the President, claiming that Mills' recent claims of unprecedented success should be deemed to refer to the “unprecedented” scale of the payment to NDC financier Alfred Woyome because “never in the history of this country has the state dished out such a huge sum of money to an individual as a judgement debt”.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates

Ghana: Prisoners to vote in 2012 elections

The Electoral Commission (EC) is to register prison inmates to enable them to vote in the 2012 general elections. On 9 th November, EC's chairman Dr Afari Gyan, said that the it would put all the necessary measures in place to start the process and would “ register them like any ordinary Ghanaian for the 2012 elections.”

Inaugurating the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison in the Central Region on 8 th November, President John Evans Atta Mills said that prison inmates have the right to vote and that the government and the EC would abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), however, has accused Mills of using prisoners to help secure re-election in 2012. The NPP Central Regional Secretary Kwamena Duncan told reporters “ it is only a failing government, a President that is groping in the dark that would want prisoners to vote only because that is an easier way to garner votes to stay in power.”

The decision has also re-opened the debate on whether Ghanaians living abroad should be allowed to vote in the general elections.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2011 Menas Associates