The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC) Hassan Ayariga of plagiarising portions of its yet-to-be launched 2016 manifesto.

The NPP, which is scheduled to launch its policy statement October 9, 2016, has labelled the former PNC flagbearer as “Melania Trump” for copying their policies “word-for-word.”

“…It has been revealed that the APC flagbearer replicated what Melania Trump did to Michelle Obama by copying word-for-word from policy statements outlined by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“One such policy statement, which Hassan Ayariga, copied from was the speech delivered by Nana Akufo-Addo at the 56th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA), at the International Conference Centre, Accra, on Thursday, September 8, 2016,” the NPP statement said.

Below is the NPP’s full statement:

AYARIGA COPIES AKUFO-ADDO, BAWUMIA POLICIES WORD-FOR-WORD

Presidential candidate of the All People’s Congress, Hassan Ayariga, yesterday launched his manifesto, amidst, pump and pageantry and urged the New Patriotic Party, which launches its manifesto on Sunday, October 9, 2016, to feel free and copy his manifesto.

According to Mr. Ayariga, “this is a serious manifesto. They can copy it if they want, but they should copy well”, much to the approval of his supporters.

However, it has been revealed that the APC flagbearer replicated what Melania Trump did to Michelle Obama by copying word-for-word from policy statements outlined by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

One such policy statement, which Hassan Ayariga, copied from was the speech delivered by Nana Akufo-Addo at the 56th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA), at the International Conference Centre, Accra, on Thursday, September 8, 2016.

At the event, Nana Akufo-Addo assured the Employers’ Association that, outlined policy initiatives which would include:

•Removing import duties on raw materials and machinery for production within the context of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET) Protocol.

•?Eliminating the Special Import Levy

•Abolishing the 17.5% VAT on imported medicines not produced in Ghana.

•Abolishing the 17.5% VAT on Financial Services

•Abolishing the 17.5% VAT on Real Estate sales

•?Abolishing the 17.5% VAT on domestic airline tickets

•?Reducing VAT for micro and small enterprises from the current 17.5% to the 3% Flat Rate VAT introduced by the NPP

•Recapitalizing and refocusing the operations of the National Investment Bank (NIB) to provide significant financial resources to support industrial development (including retooling and acquisition of new technologies by local industries).

•?Reorienting the focus of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center to attract investments into selected strategic industries, including large scale anchor industries to serve as growth poles for the Ghanaian economy (Petrochemical, Iron and Steel, Cement, Integrated Aluminum and Bauxite, Industrial Salt, Vehicle Assembly, Manufacturing of Machinery, Equipment and Machine Parts).

These policy measures, it would be recalled, were also reiterated by the Vice Presidential candidate of the NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on the same day, September 8, 2016, when he delivered his lecture on the State of the Economy, at the National Theatre.

Dr. Ayariga unashamedly read out “word-for-word” all these policies put out by Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over a month ago.

Fiscal Responsibility Act

Again, on the 2nd of December 2015, at the headquarters of the NPP, Dr. Bawumia delivered a response on the 2016 budget, and stated on page 54 that the NPP will pass a “Fiscal Responsibility Act”, which “will require governments to declare and commit to a fiscal policy that can be monitored. It will include fiscal rules (including rules governing election year spending), provisions for transparency and sanctions (including sanctions on the Executive). Such a law will be passed by an NPP government.

At Mr. Ayariga’s manifesto launch, he assured the people of Ghana that he would pass the “Fiscal Responsibility Act”.