Politics of Friday, 16 October 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Today in History: There is no perfect election in Ghana - Asiedu Nketia

Asiedu Nketiah,General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress Asiedu Nketiah,General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress

In 2016, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketiah is quoted to have said Ghana has never seen a perfect election since the inception of democracy.

According to him, elections conducted always leave room for improvement and advised people who are displeased with the outcome of elections to immediately come to terms with the reality.

He doubted a possibility of a perfect election in the country anytime soon.

“We in NDC believe that there cannot be and there will never be perfect elections in Ghana. Those who are listening should listen carefully especially our foot soldiers. There have never been perfect elections since democracy was created and every election has room for improvement”, he disclosed on Wa-based WFm.

His comment was on the back of some distraction within the NDC in the Upper West region with plans by some vanquished parliamentary candidates and parliamentarians to run as independent candidates during the December 7 polls.

Read the full story originally published on October 16, 2017 on GhanaWeb

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia has admitted there has never been any perfect election in the country since the inception of democracy.

He disclosed that there is always room for improvement after elections and therefore advised those who are aggrieved over the outcome of elections because they lost to immediately come to terms with the reality.

While stating it remains a challenge to both internal and external contests in the country, he is not optimistic there can ever be a perfect election in the country anytime soon.

“We in NDC believe that there cannot be and there will never be perfect elections in Ghana. Those who are listening should listen carefully especially our foot soldiers. There have never been perfect elections since democracy was created and every election has room for improvement”, he disclosed on Wa-based WFm.

His comments come on the heels of some distraction within the NDC in the Upper West region with plans by some vanquished parliamentary candidates and parliamentarians to run as independent candidates during the December 7 polls.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia said the party’s internal contests since the adoption of the expanded electoral college were credible but not perfect and therefore reiterated that members should not become aggrieved over such matters if they are indeed loyal members of the NDC.

“So if you are making headway you judge by the amount of progress you make in subsequent elections over and above previous ones. We are happy in NDC that with all the imperfections it is still qualitatively better than the previous ones with the one man, one vote”, he added.

The NDC Scribe conceded that the party’s register for the parliamentary primaries was not perfect because some persons contracted to compile it compromised it in their favour because they had the intentions of contesting unknown to national leaders of the party.

“Those who were compiling the register had ambitions to contest the elections so in one way or the other it was compromised. They tried to compromise the system to their favour and we are working to ensure the next election is qualitatively better.

We conceded the imperfection in the register and we will work towards improving it by learning through practice”, he assured.