Accra - A highlight of last Tuesday's launching of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) 2000 manifesto was the auctioning of a few copies of the 76-page document. The first auctioned copy was bought for ?100 million by Mr. Albert Botchway, the NDC Parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma North. President Jerry Rawlings then pricked his thumb, drew blood and thumb-printed one of the books, which fetched ?150 million!

Speaking at the function, President Rawlings reiterated his disgust for multi-party democracy saying it was an imposition on Ghanaians by the advanced Western countries.

Denouncing the very system he has supervised for almost eight years, he stated: "I don't believe in multi-party democracy. It may have worked in America and elsewhere but not here."

He relished the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) type of democracy, claiming that if the West had allowed that to flourish, "Ghana would have been three, four times ahead" in development.

The erstwhile PNDC regime, he claimed, was compelled to reluctantly accept the "alien" type of democracy because they had no choice. He explained that we were heavily dependent on the West and they would have cut the support if we had rejected their idea.

The President who rambled from one topic to another and was occasionally compelled to halt his speech because of slogans and expletives from the audience, had a litany of castigations for the opposition.

According to him, "none of the opposition flagbearers will pass the test if they are subjected to the lie detector mechanism."

Comparing the former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, to the present one, Mr. Kwame Peprah, he said the former performed so poorly and added that the "percentage fall of the cedi in Botchwey's days was far worse than what we are witnessing now."

He said "callers should have challenged him when he was telling lies and attacking me and Nana (Konadu) on air," and that it was unfortunate he was allowed to get away with it.

Sounding very furious, he issued a strong note of warning to leaders of the opposition parties to advise their supporters to conduct themselves properly during their politicking, otherwise, "I will crack down and hit back hard on them."

The Deputy Minority Leader, Mrs. Gladys Asmah, was not spared either. He appealed to his supporters to stop the name-calling attacks on her and allow her to "carry her sins on her head."

He refuted the Ghanaian Chronicle reports that he had a farm at Afram Plains.

Together with the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Enoch Teye Mensah, they lambasted the National Reform Party (NRP) flagbearer, Mr. Goosie Tanoh as a "betrayer" after having "used the system to establish himself". He asked Dr. Tony Aidoo to ensure a front page publication of how Goosie "exploited" the system to his advantage when he was with the NDC.

On Prof. Mills running mate, he asked supporters to stop "the unproductive speculation" which is rather dividing the party. "The choice of a running mate is the prerogative of Prof. Mills in consolation with the National Executive." The choice, he claimed, will be made to satisfy all.

Much as he will make himself available to Prof. Mills whether "morning, afternoon or evening, he should rather consult the manifesto and the masses of the people."

He envisaged that this year's election would be pretty difficult for the NDC, hence all party members should be activists and work assiduously towards victory.

Commodore Steve G. Obimpeh (rtd) was announced as the campaign manager for Prof. Mills.

On his part, Prof. Mills implored all the NDC Parliamentary candidates to eschew the taunting and "pull him down" postures some of them have adopted against the de-selected Parliamentarians. He advised them to be conciliatory in their interactions.

According to him, the theme of the NDC campaign is "Spreading the Benefits of Development."