When Today newspaper broke the news that there was a grand scheme by some elements in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to rig the August 7 election of their presidential candidate to contest in the 2012 general election, many, especially NPP members, did not take us serious. Little did the party realise that what we reported, if it had not been addressed, could mar the election for the party’s flag bearer.
It would be recalled that our newspaper on June 28, 2010 published an article on its front page with the banner headline: Ahead of August 7 presidential primary… NPP RIGGING IN MOTION with pictures of all the aspirants. In that story we wrote that we have uncovered serious anomalies in the master delegates list of the NPP, which when not rectified, could lead to massive rigging in the party’s presidential nomination.
We went ahead to point out some of the flaws in the master list, though, we were unable to establish which presidential aspirant was behind this scheme to shore up his chances to pick up the NPP flag bearship slot. Also we disclosed in the same story that portions of the master list either had same pictures with different names; same pictures with different gender; whilst in some instances too, there were blank pictures that strangely bore no names.
When the story broke out the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, aka Sir John was heard on Joy Fm, a radio station in Accra, and other radio stations nation-wide disputing what we had reported and impugning that the story was given to us by some NPP bigwigs. Instead of dealing with the issues that were raised in our story the rank and file of the NPP downplayed it and painted a picture as if all was well with the party.
And this has often been the bane of the NPP. Anytime an issue is raised their leaders are heard loud and clear on radio stations asserting that all is well when it is obvious that there are problems. It was after four of the aspirants had delegated their representatives to register their grievances concerning the master delegates list that the party hierarchy took steps to address the matter.
We are happy that we have been vindicated by our June 28 story. It goes to confirm that what we reported was true and could have had some bearing on the August 7 election. It is in this vein that Today applauds the efforts of the NPP Council of Elders for settling the electoral misunderstandings that dogged the party recently.
This was made possible when the party held a crucial meeting which was chaired by Prof F. T. Sai, a member of the Council of Elders in Accra which addressed all the muggy issues on the electoral process. For us, what was significant about that meeting was the presence of all the five presidential aspirants – Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Mr Isaac Osei, Mr John K. Kodua, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen. That is how we should grow our democracy.
It is our estimation that every thorny issue has been resolved and that all is set for the August 7 presidential nomination. We thus seize this opportunity to wish the NPP a successful election next month.