Ghana Votes

Monday, April 30, 2012

Ghana Elections 2012 Daily News Review - 30th April, 2012

The following are Top stories from the Dailies for today's review;

1.       CPP PC  promises politics of inspiration

2.       Christians urged to avoid acts of violence

3.       "Walk the Talk" - Ashanti NPP tells IGP

4.       COMOG calls  on NDC, NPP to show  commitment to peaceful elections

5.       Bawumia campaign visit to Malata  Market

We begin today's review with the CPP promising politics of inspiration.  A report from the New Statesman has Kabu Okai Davies, the Convention People's Party parliamentary candidate for Korle Klottey constituency in the Greater Accra Region, has stated that Ghana is at a crossroad and that the nation needs political leadership that can inspire the people. Okai Davies added that Ghana is in search of a true leader who has confidence, conscience and the credentials to   communicate his vision and galvanize the imagination of the whole nation onto the pathway of prosperity.


In a relation to campaign issues, The Ghanaian Observer under the headline PPP shakes Central Region   says the Presidential candidate of the Progressive   People's Party (PPP) Dr.  Papa Kwesi Ndoum, has kick-started his nationwide tour with an address to chiefs and people of Gomoa Nyanyano Awutu Senya Beraku and Apam, all in the Central region. On the same tour, the Daily Graphic brings to our notice that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom received a rousing welcome during his central regional tour where an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the Kasoa Junction and vantage points to welcome him amid drumming and dancing and followed him all the way to Gomoa Nyanyano where he promised clean campaign during the 2012 elections.


Finally on campaign tour, The Daily Graphic reports in the headline Bawumia visits Malata Market and its environs, last Friday and brought the market to a standstill as he was interacting with market women and also sought for and support from the various groups in the area. Accompanied by his wife, Samira; former Greater Accra Regional  Minister Sheik I.C Quake ; the National Youth  Organiser of the NPP, Madam Rita Asobayere, Dr. Bawumia, the running mate for the NPP flag bearer first called on the Chief and elders of  the Hausa Community  in Malata to seek  their prayers and support for the upcoming campaign and elections.


Away from the campaign tour, The Chronicle updates us on the biometric registration. The paper quotes the Vice President in the headline "EC has no excuse for faulty biometric equipment".  John  Dramani  Mahama revealed that the  government had  released enough funds  for the  biometric  registration, and  for that matter reports of faulty equipment  were not  due  to financial issues, but  purely  in relation with the  procurement process of the EC.


Meanwhile, President of the Northern Regional House of Chiefs and Paramount Chief of the Gonja Traditional Area, Yagbonwura Tuntumba  Sulemana Jakpa Bore Essa has tasked the ruling government to Fulfil campaign promises made to the people of the north and further demanded that government should honour its pledge to tar roads in the northern region particularly that of the eastern corridor and the Fufulso-Sawla roads.


In other reports on the registration, Daily Guide under a headline Minster Spray Cash at Polling Stations alleges that Alfred Tia Sugri, Deputy Minister of food and Agriculture, who doubles as the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Nalerigu-Gamabaga, disrupted the on-going Biometric registration exercise  at the market polling station in his constituency at about midday on Saturday. The minister, who was in the company of some constituency executives of his party, upon arrival at the Polling station, threw money into the air for officials and eligible voters to grab.


Reports on violence is also reported in the same paper as it claims the Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, of instigating violence that has characterized the registration exercise in the Region. The NPP consequently asked the regional minister to bow his head in shame for presiding over rot which has recently made the region notorious. The report was revealed under the headline NPP Fingers Minister in Ashanti Violence.


In the same vein, Ashanti NPP accuses NDC and condemned "the senseless violence" that had characterized the biometric registration in the region. It said the political image of the region had been dented by reports that put the region at the top of the list of reported cases of violence and intimidation. The Daily Guide newspaper reports.


In other developments, the New statesman has the New  Patriotic  Party calling on the  Inspector General  of Police (IGP) to  deliver on his assurance  to arrest  and bring  to justice  thugs  causing  confusion  at the biometric  voter registration centres. The appeal was made  by  Mr. Frederick Fredua Antoh, Ashanti  Regional  Chairman of the NPP, after a physical  attack and destruction of registration equipment and  materials at the Kronom SDA registration centre in the Suame  Constituency  in Kumasi by a criminal gang  on Thursday asked the IGP to walk the talk.


The Volta Regional Director of the Electoral Commission (EC), Lawrencia Kpatakpa says the EC is not sabotaging the registration exercise in the region, but working round the clock to ensure its success. The paper further states in the headline "We Are Not Sabotaging Volta Region" and she added that the EC is not National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP), and Convention People's Party (CPP). "All we know is that Ghanaians are registering in the Volta region like any other part of the country, so how can the EC deliberately sabotage registration of Ghanaians".


Amidst reports of foreigners taking Part in the registration exercise, The Heritage in a headline Niger national nabbed has it that a Twenty-three-year-old Niger national is standing trial at the Tema Circuit Court "A" for registering in the on-going biometric registration exercise with a fake name at Afienya, a suburb of Tema. Seybou Hassane, who registered with the name Shaibu Hassen, says he undertook the registration based on the recommendation of the assemblyman of his area.


Christians  urged to avoid acts of violence a headline report  by  the daily Graphic tells that the   Bishop of the Sekondi Diocese of the Methodist  Church, Rt. Reverend Edward Ofori  Donkor, has advised Christians to avoid  acts of hooliganism and violence during  the biometric  voters registration exercise. He also reminded the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that God would not forgive them if through their selfish ambitions they destroyed the nation through politics.


Further on the call for peace, The Ghanaian Times tells in the headline that COMOG calls on NDC, NPP to show commitment to peaceful elections. The Coalition of Muslim Organisations, Ghana peace-loving Ghanaians and all political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to demonstrate their commitment to a peaceful campaign devoid of acts that have the tendency to create violence and instability. It also entreated all the 151-member institutions and organizations of COMOG, all peace-loving Ghanaians not to themselves to be persuaded by any rabble-rouser or agent provocateur to make utterances that might push the nation into anarchy.


The Centre for Alternative Development (CENFAD-Ghana) is collaborating with stakeholders in the Upper East Region to ensure a free, fair transparent and peaceful general election. As indicated in the paper's headline CENFAD-Ghana organizes workshop on peaceful elections. Against this background, the NGO which promotes good governance, with sponsorship from STAR-Ghana, organized a regional stakeholders meeting at Tongo in the Talensi-Nabdam District.


The paper further carries the headline Gomoa West Inter-Party Dialogue Committee inaugurated. The Gomoa West District Inter-Party Dialogue Committee, has intensified its public education to ensure violence –free biometric voter registration and December 7 election. The committee is made up of representatives of the political parties, the Electoral Commission, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), security agencies, youth groups and representatives of religious groups, and has been formed to resolve election-related disputes, and ensure peaceful, free and fair registration and elections.


This daily news review is compiled by the African Elections Project (AEP) Media Monitoring Centre, Accra, Ghana.

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