LET"S ADDRESS ELECTIONS HICCUPS -AMBROSE DERY (PAGE 12, JAN 4, 2011)

THE Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Ambrose Dery, has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to put measures in place to forestall any future electoral hiccups.
That, he said, was to avert a repetition of what he described as “Horrible, disastrous and poorly organised elections in the just ended district level and unit committee elections.
He said the manner in which the district level and unit committee elections were held clearly depicted the lack of commitment of the authorities on good governance.
“We do not want to go back to the dark days and so everything must be done by the government from now to ensure a successful national election in the year 2012,” he stressed.
Mr Dery expressed these concerns when he interacted with the Daily Graphic during his annual new year party for his constituents at Kokoligu near Hamile in the Upper West Region.
The well-attended get together attracted a large crowd from various parts of the constituency who arrived on motorcycles, trucks and buses.
He acknowledged that although the EC might have its problems in holding the elections, those problems could have been averted if the government had been proactive.
He said the good governance under the stewardship of the NPP and the smooth handing over of power by former President Kufuor in 2008 made Ghana the beacon of democracy on the African continent and, therefore, nothing should be done by the NDC administration to tarnish this image.
To this end, Mr Dery, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lawra-Nandom Constituency, reminded the government to come clear on its position on the crisis in Cote d’ Ivoire in order not to tarnish the image of the country, especially at a time ECOWAS was led by a Ghanaian.
Touching on the performance of the Mills led government, Mr Dery described the NDC administration as a “Government of broken promises,” pointing out that the government must be reliable and stick to its word.
He further described the NDC administration and its performance as “abysmal, incompetent and a government full of confusion and inertia”, adding that “Mistakes are bound to occur, but those mistakes must be corrected. Presently, the NDC government is behaving like a ship at sea adrift with no destination”.
Citing some of the utterances of Professor Mills during the electioneering before the 2008 elections, the Deputy Minority Leader said the President had not been truthful to Ghanaians because even though he talked much about putting money in people’s pockets, the present situation was contrary to his campaign promise.
He said Professor Mills also promised to reduce the prices of petroleum products after assuming the reigns of government but he has failed to do that and instead of apologising to the people, the government was rather indulging in populism.
Such moves, according to Mr Dery, raised doubts about the sincerity of the government.
On the state of the economy and the implementation of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Deputy Minority Leader explained that the NPP in 2006 inherited181 per cent debt to GDP but was able to bring it down to below 50 per cent in 2008, however, instead of the NDC doing more to reduce it further, it had rather risen to 70 per cent as at October last year.
“The debt, the NDC claimed the NPP left went into the construction of the Bui dam, stadia and roads among other development projects but in the case of the NDC, it has nothing to show” he indicated.
He also explained that the SADA was an after thought by the NDC after learning from the NPP’s proposed Northern Development Authority.
However, he cautioned the government to support the SADA with the needed funds, particularly for its administration to sustain it.