Politics of Monday, 18 November 2024

Source: mynewsgh.com

NPP’s electoral defeat in 2008 hurt me; let’s not repeat that in 2024 – Kufuor

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor play videoFormer President John Agyekum Kufuor

Former President of Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor, has spoken about the impact of voter apathy on the fortunes of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2008 general elections.

According to him, several cracks in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2008 led to the party losing.

John Agyekum Kufuor, who was speaking to some morning show hosts at his residence, said he was hurt that the NPP could not win but blamed it on the cracks within the political party at the time.

"Some chairmen connived to remove some Members of Parliament, and these persons contested as independents, and that affected us greatly. We lost, I think, eighteen seats, and that did not help us as a political party.

"If we want to win the election and continue the great policies to ensure continuity, we must vote massively for a first-round win. It was worrying that we lost in 2008. We won the first round but lost the second round. At that time, most people who did not vote realized they had to vote; it was too late.

"The NDC came with a different vision, and so some of the things we started were left to rot because they did not believe in our policies. We planned to dualize the Accra and Kumasi roads, but it did not see the light of day.

"We took an interest-free loan from the Chinese to dualize the road and construct the Nsawam bypass; we constructed the Suhum road to Apedwa, but the ones that were left when we left power, the NDC did not touch them and did nothing about them," he said.

"So during elections, if you say you won't vote, the others will vote, so please avoid voter apathy and vote massively so that your party can win. If you don't vote, you will be left in slavery," he said.