ON THE 28 DECEMBER ELECTION

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media: We thank you for responding to our invitation. We hope not to detain you long in this busy period. We hope also that our presentation will assist in your work of clarifying for the public the important choice we must make on 28 December.

Ladies and gentlemen: in our view the most important issues at stake in the 2008 elections are first national cohesion and second the protection of constitutional space, however limited, for competing interests and viewpoints to participate in setting a national agenda and securing our development.

Our constitution, the result of more than a generation of popular struggles for democracy and development following the overthrow of the CPP, is not perfect. Constitutionalism provides a platform and protection for ordinary people in their fight to eliminate exploitation, poverty and repression from our society. It places limitations on the socially powerful and prevents them from utterly crushing the marginalised and those who in their interest dissent from, protest against or oppose the status quo. It provides us with space to struggle to change society. Elections are an example of this. Every four years the constitution levels the playing field for all citizens, property-owning or not, to decide who will govern Ghana. During elections the weak and the poor can translate their numbers into real, immediate if limited political and thus social power. These are development foundations that democratic forces must cherish and build on. In our ten years as a party Reform! has always fought to defend the space for citizens’ activism and to encourage its use for campaigns for sustainable development. From the “Ya Bre!” marches in 1999 through “Ye Wu!” in 2008 Reform! has encouraged Ghanaians to speak out against the usurpation of their rights by officials seeking to escape and override their constitutional subordination to the public.

It is for this reason that eight years ago we supported John Agyekum Kufour in the run-off election that brought the NPP to power despite our fundamental disagreement with NPP’s policy outlook. We hoped that the defeat of the NDC would prevent or retard the consolidation of the culture of intolerance and the narrowing of democratic and political space that characterised the last years of the Rawlings administration. We hoped that the NPP, despite its own narrow social vision would at least keep their promise to promote space for free expression and free association. The Kufour administration could at the very least build a healthy political climate within which more popular forces could develop and consolidate.

Ladies and gentlemen: Unfortunately, this was not to be. Rather the NPP’s commitment to foreign domination of our society and to personal wealth accumulation for its elite took precedence over its avowed commitment to constitutionalism. Necessarily it became intolerant, divisive and repressive to stay in power. Beyond blatant thievery and mismanagement of national development, the main theme of the administration of the NPP has been the grinding erosion of our constitutional rights as citizens to free association, assembly and expression; the corruption of sections of the media and its reduction to the role of Government praise-singers, the steady assault on the independence of public institutions like the security services and the judiciary mandated by the constitution to protect and advance our rights.

Worse still, Ladies and Gentlemen: Ghana, once the flag bearer of pan-African unity, now suffers internal ethnic disunity. The NPP has promoted ethnic chauvinism in the hope that ordinary Ghanaians will be too busy fighting each other over false identities to focus on the real damage being done to us by our elected leaders. The violent crises that have disrupted life in communities all over the country are the direct result of NPP’s reckless handling of the ethnic question. As we have all seen this violent ethnic chauvinism is already consuming the NPP itself. This, in Nkrumah’s Ghana, is unconscionable and frankly unforgiveable.

On several occasions between 2001 and 2004, we warned that the NPP had set out on a destructive path. From 2004 onward, mainly within the framework of the CJA we have worked consistently with other progressive political forces to expose and contain the NPP’s growing authoritarianism. We find it incredible that in the midst of its abject failure in government, the NPP has campaigned for re-election under a banner of continuity – at least up until the December 7 poll after which it offered insincere apologies and commenced all sorts of insulting gimmicks to curry favour with the public it has so long abused.

Ladies and Gentlemen: after careful and considered thought the National Reform Party has decided to call for a rejection of the New Patriotic Party in the 28 December polls. We believe this is necessary to protect national cohesion and ensure space for open democratic debate and the contest of different views of development. In turn we will support and endorse the candidacy of Professor John Evans Atta Mills, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress at the election of 28th December, 2008.

On 28th December, 2008, we call on Ghanaians to assert once again our ultimate authority over the political process. On that day, carpenters and lawyers, “domestic helps” and business magnates, the so-called royal and the commoner, the ruler and the ruled possessing each a single vote shall be equal in strength, equal in influencing the outcome after a long hard fought campaign, equal with one vote apiece. This is the energizing imperative of democracy. This equality is its creative force. Let us preserve it in peace and harmony. Let us be vigilant and check those who would seek to use the power we have loaned to them to constrict our choices. Above all, let us put our best foot forward by coming our massively to VOTE FOR CHANGE.

We have not arrived at these decisions lightly. We recognise that a vote for Professor Mills and the National Democratic Congress will not fulfil all the aspirations that we cherish as a Party or as a people. Our confidence in the personal integrity, diligence and grit of Professor Mills notwithstanding, we believe that it is only the activism of organised Ghanaians between, and not just during, election campaigns and our willingness to defend our rights and interests that can guarantee good government. A vote for Professor Mills however is crucial to ensure political space for this activism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in 2009 and beyond, we look forward keenly to working with other progressive political organisations to continually challenge the Mills administration to higher standards of democratic consultation and stewardship - consistent with the dream of our founding father. We also remain committed to building with others a credible progressive alternative.

GHANA FIRST!! signed Augustus Obuadum Tanoh (Goosie) For National Working Committee